Writing to Children / 給小孩寫信

隨著智慧型手機普及，現在除了到處看到大家講電話，還有滑動著手機螢幕上網的人群，我不禁想，當大人真好，可以任意穿梭於真實和虛擬的世界。

With the popularity of smartphones, we are surrounded not only by people talking on the phone but also those hooked on the Internet everywhere. It occurs to me that being adults is a beautiful thing in that we can travel between the real and virtual worlds as we please.

前些日子小方收到一封印刷品信件，寄到外婆家的住址，我和他說這件事時，他狐疑地答道：只有妳會寄信給我，究竟是哪來的信呢？我們因為這封信，對話裡花了好幾分鐘討論它。一個四歲小孩，不看電視不上網，還沒有上學，住在小小的生活圈，只有吃飽撐著的阿姨每周寄信給他，這樣的生活大人想起來應該很害怕，那些不上線的日子怎麼過呢？看書、玩耍、和想像，其實每一個大人也都曾經過著如此單純的生活，只是到了某個年紀，自我娛樂的部份被網路取代。

A few days ago Von received printed mail sent to his grandma’s address. When I informed him of it, he was full of question marks, replying, “You are the only person that sends letters to me. Who else can it be?” We took several minutes to discuss the possibilities in our telephone dialog. This is a four-year-old who doesn’t watch TV nor has any access to the Internet. He does not go to school and lives with a small family. There’s only the single aunt who has nothing better to do than write to him on a weekly basis. Adults would certainly freak out on thinking of such a life. How to kill time without any link to the cyberspace? Von reads, plays, and IMAGINES. As a matter of fact, every adult had once a similar life, but the self-entertaining part was replaced by the online world at a certain age.

快兩歲的楷維凡經過之處，必想出如何搗蛋，在廚房的垃圾桶旁發現草莓的空盒子，放到頭上當帽子戴，玩躲貓貓被其他人遺忘時，也樂得安靜地挖起壁紙，在我看來，除了搞不清楚為甚麼被大人責備，他挺享受這種充滿創意的人生。


Kai, almost two years old, never fails to leave his creative traces wherever he passes by. When he saw the empty bin of strawberries near the trash can on his visit to the kitchen, he put it on as a square hat and looked at me with a hint of mischief in his eyes. When he was forgotten in the game of hide-and-seek, he remained quiet in his corner while deriving fun from scraping off the wallpaper. In my opinion, apart from not understanding why he was reprimanded, he seems to enjoy his life filled with rich creativity.

難怪威廉布雷克說：孩童乃人類之祖，我的解釋為：許多大人已經失去想像的能力，而我只好藉由寫信給小孩，緊緊抓住我殘留的想像力。

No wonder William Blake said, “The child is father of the man.” I explain it as, “Many adults have lost the ability to imagine.” So I can only cling to my remaining portion by writing to children.