《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 65 (144):我幫得上忙

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.

靜修開始不久之後，即看出我是多麼適合這項工作。我坐在“歡迎桌”前，戴着“嗨，我的名字是……”的徽章，這些人從三十多個國家抵達此地，有些人是老手，但許多人從沒來過印度。早上十點的氣溫已經超過三十七攝氏度，而大部分人都已搭了一整晚的飛機。有些人進道場時，看起來就像剛在後車廂醒來——就像根本不清楚自己來這裏幹嘛。或許早在吉隆坡遺失行李的時候，他們就已經忘記，自己一開始是受何種超越自我的慾望所驅使而申請參加靜修的。他們口渴，卻不清楚水能不能喝。肚子餓，卻不清楚午餐時間或食堂所在。他們穿着不當，在酷熱的熱帶地區身穿合成衣料、厚重的靴子。

I can speak a teensy bit of Russian . . .

他們不知道這兒有沒有人會講俄文。我會講一點點俄文……

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.

我幫得上忙。我很有能力幫忙。我這一生中曾經伸出的觸角，教我如何解讀人們的感覺；加上身爲一個超級敏感的小孩，在成長期間所培養出來的直覺；還有身爲善解人意的酒保和追根究底的記者所學習而來的聆聽技巧；以及多年來爲人妻或女友所熟悉的照顧能力——這些經驗的累積，使我得以協助這些人抒解他們所承擔的艱鉅任務。我看見他們從墨西哥、菲律賓、非洲、丹麥、底特律來到此地，感覺就像《第三類接觸》（Close Encounters of the Third Kind）當中的一景，德萊弗斯（RichardDreyfuss）和追隨者基於他們不清楚的原因，被太空船的抵達所吸引而去到懷俄明州的中部。他們的勇氣令我驚訝。這些人放下家庭與生活，決定花幾個星期和一大羣完全不相識的人在印度靜修。並非每個人在有生之年都會這麼做的。