《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 65 (144):我帮得上忙

As the retreats begin, it is so quickly evident how much I am made for this job. I'm sitting there at the Welcome Table with my Hello, My Name Is badge, and these people are arriving from thirty different countries, and some of them are old-timers but many of them have never been to India. It's over 100 degrees already at 10:00 AM, and most of these people have been flying all night in coach. Some of them walk into this Ashram looking like they just woke up in the trunk of a car—like they have no idea at all what they're doing here. Whatever desire for transcendence drove them to apply for this spiritual retreat in the first place, they've long ago forgotten it, probably somewhere around the time their luggage got lost in Kuala Lumpur. They're thirsty, but don't know yet if they can drink the water. They're hungry, but don't know what time lunch is, or where the cafeteria can be found. They're dressed all wrong, wearing synthetics and heavy boots in the tropical heat. They don't know if there's anyone here who speaks Russian.

静修开始不久之后，即看出我是多么适合这项工作。我坐在“欢迎桌”前，戴着“嗨，我的名字是……”的徽章，这些人从三十多个国家抵达此地，有些人是老手，但许多人从没来过印度。早上十点的气温已经超过三十七摄氏度，而大部分人都已搭了一整晚的飞机。有些人进道场时，看起来就像刚在后车厢醒来——就像根本不清楚自己来这里干嘛。或许早在吉隆坡遗失行李的时候，他们就已经忘记，自己一开始是受何种超越自我的欲望所驱使而申请参加静修的。他们口渴，却不清楚水能不能喝。肚子饿，却不清楚午餐时间或食堂所在。他们穿着不当，在酷热的热带地区身穿合成衣料、厚重的靴子。

I can speak a teensy bit of Russian . . .

他们不知道这儿有没有人会讲俄文。我会讲一点点俄文……

I can help them. I am so equipped to help. All the antennas I've ever sprouted throughout my lifetime that have taught me how to read what people are feeling, all the intuition I developed growing up as the supersensitive younger child, all the listening skills I learned as a sympathetic bartender and an inquisitive journalist, all the proficiency of care I mastered after years of being somebody's wife or girlfriend—it was all accumulated so that I could help ease these good people into the difficult task they've taken on. I see them coming in from Mexico, from the Philippines, from Africa, from Denmark, from Detroit and it feels like that scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where Richard Dreyfuss and all those other seekers have been pulled to the middle of Wyoming for reasons they don't understand at all, drawn by the arrival of the spaceship. I am so consumed by wonder at their bravery. These people have left their families and lives behind for a few weeks to go into silent retreat amidst a crowd of perfect strangers in India. Not everybody does this in their lifetime.

我帮得上忙。我很有能力帮忙。我这一生中曾经伸出的触角，教我如何解读人们的感觉；加上身为一个超级敏感的小孩，在成长期间所培养出来的直觉；还有身为善解人意的酒保和追根究底的记者所学习而来的聆听技巧；以及多年来为人妻或女友所熟悉的照顾能力——这些经验的累积，使我得以协助这些人抒解他们所承担的艰巨任务。我看见他们从墨西哥、菲律宾、非洲、丹麦、底特律来到此地，感觉就像《第三类接触》（Close Encounters of the Third Kind）当中的一景，德莱弗斯（RichardDreyfuss）和追随者基于他们不清楚的原因，被太空船的抵达所吸引而去到怀俄明州的中部。他们的勇气令我惊讶。这些人放下家庭与生活，决定花几个星期和一大群完全不相识的人在印度静修。并非每个人在有生之年都会这么做的。