Who has seen the wind?
                                                     Neither you nor I:
                                                     But when the trees bow down their heads.
                                                     The wind is passing by.
            -Christina Rossetti
                                                     2. TIME AND FORGIVENESS
                   Tim is off on a search to rescue the Princess. She has been
                   snatched by a horrible and evil monster.
                    
                      This happened because Tim made a mistake.
                                  Not just one. He made many mistakes during the time they
                           spent together, all those years ago. Memories of their


                           relationship have become muddled, replaced wholesale, but
                           one remains clear: the Princess turning sharply away, her
                           braid lashing at him with contempt.
                                  He knows she tried to be forgiving, but who can just shrug
                           away a guilty lie, a stab in the back? Such a mistake will
                           change a relationship irreversibly, even if we have learned
                           from the mistake and would never repeat it. The Princess's
                           eyes grew narrower. She became more distant.
                
                                 Our World, with its rules of causality, has trained us to be
                           miserly with forgiveness. By forgiving too readily, we can be
                           badly hurt. But if we've learned from a mistake and become
                           better for it, shouldn't we be rewarded for the learning, rather
                           than punished for the mistake?


                                  What if our world worked differently? Suppose we could tell
                           her: "I didn't mean what I just said," and she would say: "It's
                           okay, I understand," and she would not turn away, and life
                           would really proceed as though we had never said that thing?
                           We could remove the damage but still be wiser for the
                           experience.
                                 
                                  Tim and Princess lounge in the castle garden, laughing
                           together, giving names to the colorful birds. Their mistakes
                           are hidden from each other, tucked away between the folds of
                           time, safe.
                                                     3. TIME AND MISTERY
                           All those years ago, Tim had left the Princess behind. He had


                           kissed her on the neck, picked up his travel bag, and walked out
                           the door. He regrets this, to a degree. Now he's journeying to
                           find her again, to show he knows how sad it was, but also to tell
                           her how it was good.
                           For a long time, he thought they had been cultivating the
                           perfect relationship. He has been fiercely protective, reversing
                           all his mistakes so they would not touch her. Likewise, keeping
                           a tight rein on her own mistakes, she always pleased him.
                           But to be fully couched within the comfort of a friend is a mode
                           of existence with severe implications. To please you perfectly,
                           she must understand you perfectly. Thus you cannot defy her
                           expectations or escape her reach. Her benevolence has
                           circumscribed you, and your life's achievements will not reach
                           beyond the map she has drawn.


                           Tim needed to be non-manipulable. He needed a hope of
                           transcendence. He needed, sometimes, to be immune to the
                           Princess's caring touch.
                           Off in the distance, Tim saw a castle where the flags flutter
                           even when the wind has expired, and the bread in the kitchen is
                           always warm. A little bit of magic.
          
                                                     4. TIME AND PLACE
                            Visiting his parents' home for a holiday meal, Tim felt as
                            though he had regressed to those long-ago years when he
                            lived under their roof, oppressed by their insistence on
                            upholding strange values which, to him, were meaningless.
                            Back then, bickering would erupt over drops of gravy spilt
                            onto the tablecloth.


                            Escaping, Tim walked in the cool air toward the university
                            he'd attended after moving out of his parents' home. As he
                            distanced himself from that troubling house, he felt the
                            embarrassment of childhood fading into the past. But now
                            he stepped into all the insecurities he'd felt at the university,
                            all the panic of walking a social tightrope.
                            Tim only felt relieved after the whole visit was over, sitting
                            back home in the present, steeped in contrast: he saw how
                            he'd improved so much from those old days.
                            This improvement, day by day, takes him ever-closer to
                            finding the Princess. If she exists --she must!-- she will
                            transform him, and everyone.
                            He felt on his trip that every place stirs up an emotion, and
                            every emotion invokes a memory: a time and a location. So


                            couldn't he find the Princess now, tonight, just by
                            wandering from place to place and noticing how he feels? A
                            trail of feelings, of awe and inspiration, should lead him to
                            that castle: in the future: her arms enclosing him, her scent
                            fills him with excitement, creates a moment so strong he can
                            remember it in the past.
                          Immediately Tim walked out his door, the next morning,
                          toward whatever the new day held. He felt something like
                          optimism.
                                                     5. TIME AND DECISION
                            She never understood the impulses that drove him, never
                            quite felt the intensity that, over time, chiseled lines into his
                            face. She was never quite close enough to him--but he held
                            her as though she were, whispered into her ear words that


                            only a soul mate should receive.
                           
                            Over the remnants of dinner, they both knew the time had
                            come. He would have said: "I have to go find the Princess,"
                            but he didn't need to. Giving a final kiss, hoisting a travel
                            bag to his shoulder, he walked out the door.
                           
                            Through all the nights that followed, she still loved him as
                            though he had stayed, to comfort her and protect her,
                            Princess be damned.
                                                     6. HESITANCE
                            Perhaps in a perfect world, the ring would be a symbol of
                            happiness. It's a sign of ceaseless devotion: even if he will
                            never find the Princess, he will always be trying. He still will


                            wear the ring.
                           
                            But the ring makes its presence known. It shines out to
                            others like a beacon of warning. It makes people slow to
                            approach. Suspicion, distrust. Interactions are torpedoed
                            before Tim can open his mouth.
                            In time he learns to deal with others carefully. He matches
                            their hesitant pace, tracing a soft path through their
                            defenses. But this exhausts him, and it only works to a
                            limited degree. It doesn't get him what he needs.
                           
                           Tim begins to hide the ring in his pocket. But he can hardly
                           bear it--too long tucked away, that part of him might suffocate.


必须收藏。
楼主好样的...

火星人表示对英语无能为力

虽然很想收个原版的
但是看到这个中文……
还是放弃吧

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