Fairness

◎供稿：黃曉琴

自人類社會誕生以來，人們就一直有個公平的理想，無數哲人在迷惘中尋索公平的真義，那你理解的公平是什么呢？

The daughter yelled as soon as she entered the door, shouting “This world is too unfair!” It turned out that she was talking to her classmates while she was taking a math class. She was caught by the teacher, and finally she and the classmates were both1)punish [?p?nI?] vt. 懲罰；嚴厲對待punished.

“It's fair,” I said. “That's not it! There were2)obviously [?ɑ?bvi?sli] adv. 明顯地, 顯然地obviouslyseveral classmates who were talking at the time, but the teacher stared at us and only punished us. We are3)scapegoat [?skeIpɡo?t] n. 替罪羊；替人頂罪者scapegoatsof executing one person as a warning to others!” She was still indignant.

I know that my daughter is very concerned about this matter. I asked her, “Should you be punished for speaking when your teacher is in class?” She nodded, but also defended,“It is unfair for the teacher not to punish other people who speak!” I asked her again,“Should the teacher punish you?” She said, “Yes, but...” I knew what she was going to say and interrupted her, “Don't talk about others, just look at yourself. Did the teacher punish you wrong?” She lowered her head and said, “No.” I said, “That's fair! You know what the price of speaking in class is. You did it and got the punishment you4)deserve [dI?zз?v] v. 應得deserved. It’s fair.The teacher didn’t punish others, not because of a special discount for a classmate, but because she was a reward and punishment executor. She can choose to forgive. From your point of view, others seem unfair, but for those students she is forgiving, not unfair.”Although my daughter was not very convinced, she was not as angry as when she first entered the door. She asked me, “Do you say there is anything unfair in this world?” I said,“Yes! This earth is round, not5)flat [fl?t] adj. 平的；單調的flat, and there is no place in the world where the sun can’t shine, so what could be wrong? Things are fair? But it depends on what angle you stand at. ”

People are often like this. Standing and looking at themselves, they are very clear about what they are doing, knowing what their rewards and punishments should be, and the unfair mentality is that when we look up at others, they are6)originally [??rId??n?li] adv. 最初，起初originallystable. The pace of being confused because of comparison with others, and then more likely to become a stumbling block in his life. The most important thing is to understand fairness in a deeper way, not from your point of view only!

譯文女兒一進門就大呼小叫，直嚷：“這世界太不公平了！”原來，她在上數學課時和同學講話，被老師逮個正著，最后她與同學兩個人都受罰了。“很公平啊。”我說。“才不呢！當時明明有好幾位同學都在講話，但老師偏偏盯著我們，只罰我倆，我們是代罪羔羊！”她還是憤憤不平。

我知道女兒對此事很在意。我問她：“在老師上課時講話是不是應該受罰？”她點頭，但也辯護：“老師不罰其他講話的人就是不公平！”我再問她：“老師罰你應不應該？”她說：“應該，但是……”我知道她要說什么并打斷她：“不講別人，只看你自己，老師有沒有罰錯你？”她低著頭說：“沒有。”我說：“那就很公平呀！你知道上課講話的代價是什么，你做了，得到應有的懲罰，就是公平。老師沒有懲罰其他人，不是因為給某些同學特別優待，而是因為她是賞罰執行者，她可以選擇饒恕。從你的角度看別人似乎不公平，但對那些同學來說她是寬容，不是不公平。”女兒雖然還不是很信服，但不像剛進門時那樣怒氣沖沖了。她反問我：“那你說這世界上有沒有不公平的事呀？”我說：“有啊！這地球是圓的，不是平的，這世上也有太陽照不到的地方，哪可能事事都是絕對公平的呢？不過要看你站在什么角度去看事情。”

人往往就是這樣，站著看自己，對自己的所作所為很清楚，知道自己的付出，應該有怎樣的對錯賞罰；而不公平的心態的產生，就是當我們抬頭看別人時候，本來平穩的步伐，因為與他人作比較而錯亂了，后來更可能成為自己生活上的絆腳石。真正理解公平，不光從自己的角度出發，真的是最為重要的！