雙語勵志故事：創造財富的藍莓醬

摘錄：金錢可以暫時讓你感覺富有，但唯有和他人的關係以及和朋友家人一起度過的那些日子的回憶纔會真正讓你變富有，而那是每個人都可以創造的財富。

Of course, she wasn't really my aunt and, out of fear, I never called her that to her face. I only referred to her as "My Aunt Fannie" because the name always made my father chuckle and gave my mother cause to look sternly at both of us—at me for being disrespectful of my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior. I enjoyed both reaction so I looked for every opportunity to work the name into as many conversations as possible.

As a young woman, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large Victorian farmhouse owned by Fannie Cratty and her twin brother, Farnsworth. They represented the end of the Cratty line. Neither had married nor had any living heirs and my father once told me (in a whisper) that it was because they were both too stingy to share their family wealth or pass it on. During those year my mother helped Aunt Fanny make the best blueberry cobbler jam ever tasted by anyone in Glenfield. She was noted for her jam and for never sharing the recipe with another living soul. (This was the real source of contention among the Baptist women.) Even though my mother knew the recipe by heart, as long as Aunt Fannie was alive (and she lived to be ninety-six!), she never made the jam without Ms. Cratty in our kitchen to direct the process and preserve the secret.

我的芬妮姨媽是做藍莓醬的。當然，她並非真是我的姨媽。並且出於對她的恐懼,我從沒當面這樣稱呼過她。我只是在提及她時才用“我的芬妮姨媽”作指代，因爲這個稱呼總惹得我父親咯咯笑，還使得我母親板起臉來直瞪着我和父親——瞪着我是因爲我對長輩不尊，瞪着父親是因爲他縱容我使壞。兩種反應都讓我樂在其中，所以我總是伺機儘可能地將那個稱呼用到我們平常的對話裏來。

我母親年輕時在一棟建於維多利亞時代的農舍裏的大戶人家裏當廚房幫工。房子的主人是芬妮•克瑞蒂和她那龍鳳胎胞弟法斯沃•克瑞蒂。他們是克瑞蒂家族的最後一代人。他倆誰都沒有結婚生子。一次,父親(悄悄地)告訴我，那是因爲他倆都是吝嗇鬼，極其不情願和外人分享自己的家族財富，也不願將這些財富留給子孫後代。那些年裏，我母親幫芬妮姨媽做出整個格蘭菲爾鎮公認最爲美味的藍莓餡餅醬。芬妮姨媽因藍莓醬而聞名，同時也因不願與任何人分享其祕方而著稱。(這確實在浸禮會婦女中引起了一番爭論。)儘管那個祕方我母親早已背得滾瓜爛熟，但只要芬妮姨媽還在世(她可是活到了96歲!)，沒有克瑞蒂女士在我們廚房裏指揮整個製作流程以此來守住這個祕方，母親絕不會私下做那種藍莓醬。

Each August, when blueberry season would roll around, my mother would prepare me for Aunt Fannie's visit. It was imperative that I be on my best behavior. After all, the woman was old, wealthy, stern, and a pillar of the church (I guess that would make her my "sainted" Aunt Fannie). Reverend Nash had once preached on the consequences of looking on sinful things and had told about Lot's wife being turned to a pillar of salt because she looked back on wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. I didn't know what Aunt Fannie had looked at, but it must have been pretty bad. Whatever it wa it had left her hair a decided shade of blue and turned her into a pillar of the church. Whenever she was at the house, I didn't need to be reminded to guard my thoughts and watch my tongue.

每逢八月是藍莓的成熟期，母親會讓我爲芬妮姨媽的到訪做好準備。她會命令我以最佳表現示人。畢竟，這女人已經上了年紀，富有且苛刻，還是教堂裏的支柱人物。(我想就是因爲這樣使得芬妮姨媽成爲了我心中的“聖人”。)尊敬的納什牧師做過一個佈道，關於偷看罪惡之物的後果，還給我們講了羅德的妻子因爲回頭看了罪惡之都索多瑪以及哥摩拉城，因而變成了一根鹽柱的故事。我不知道芬妮姨媽看過什麼東西，但肯定是很糟的東西。無論那是什麼，它使得她的頭髮變成純藍色，並把她變成了教堂裏的支柱。她一到我家，我就會自覺地不敢亂想，不敢亂說。

One year, after I had been particularly helpful with the jam proces Aunt Fannie gave me a quarter and then made me promise that I would never spend it. "Hold onto this quarter," she said, "and someday you will be rich. I still have my very first quarter, given to me by my grandfather." It had obviously worked for her. So, I tucked the 1938-quarter in a small box, put it in my dresser drawer, and waited to become rich.

有一年，我特別用心使勁幫忙做藍莓醬，之後，芬妮姨媽給了我一枚價值25分的硬幣，並要我承諾決不會花了它。“抓牢這枚硬幣，”她說道，“有一天你就會變富有。我仍收藏着自己拿到的第一枚硬幣，是我爺爺給我的。”保存好能帶來成功的第一枚硬幣顯然對她奏效。所以，我把那枚1938年製造的硬幣塞進一個小盒子裏，把盒子放進我的梳妝檯抽屜裏，等着變成有錢人。

I now have the blueberry cobbler jam recipe and the quarter from Aunt Fannie. In people's eye Aunt Fannie's success was attributed to that secret recipe. But to me, it was just a common recipe. Neither have significantly contributed to my net worth, but I keep them as reminders to hold onto the valuable things in life. Money can make you feel rich for a while, but it is the relationships and the memories of time spent with friends and family that truly leave you wealthy. And that is a fortune that anyone can build.

我現在擁有了藍莓餡餅醬的祕方，以及芬妮姨媽給我的那枚硬幣。在人們眼裏，芬妮姨媽的成功歸功於那個祕方。但對我而言，那不過是一個很普通的烹飪方法，那枚硬幣也好，烹飪方法也好，都沒爲我的淨資產的積累做出什麼貢獻，但我仍留着它們，只想借其提醒自己把握住人生中那些珍貴的東西。金錢可以暫時讓你感覺富有，但唯有和他人的關係以及和朋友家人一起度過的那些日子的回憶纔會真正讓你變富有。而那是每個人都可以創造的財富。