6. Revelations on a Bomb Run飞行轰炸途中的启示
By Lloyd Jordan

One day while piloting a bomber through the war skies of Europe, I came to believe in the immortality of man. There was not any melodrama attached to this awakening. Only through the thousand details of a mind absorbed in a bomb run came the discovery of a single fact: “Know ye the truth, and the truth shall make ye free.”
一天，在我驾驶轰炸机飞越战火纷飞的欧洲上空时，我突然开始相信人的不朽。这次顿悟不带任何戏剧性。只是在这次飞行轰炸途中脑子里出现的无数个念头当中，我突然发现了一个再简单不过的事实：“你们必晓得真理，真理必叫你们得以自由。”

Below me were the Alps, and the vision of Hannibal crossing them in his time of war flashed through my mind, followed in rapid succession by the remembrance of all the histories of wars. I looked at the bomber machinery about me and at the battle signs of destruction below and realized this was only one of the thousands of wars man has been engaged in, and still he has flourished. So then, like the warm sun and friendly heaven and God’s other features about me, man, too, must be permanent.The warmth that came into the subzero cockpit with this divine realization made me know that here, at least for me, was the key to a happiness which had been missing before. The feeling of a day-to-day existence without hope for the tomorrow, changed to a sense of security and the knowledge of having a future. With this truth in mind, one cannot help but try to make a better world to live in.
我下面是阿尔卑斯山脉，迦太基军队的统帅汉尼拔在战争期间穿越它的景象在我的脑海里闪过，紧接着是一幕幕关于所有战争历史的回忆。我注视着身旁的轰炸机设备以及下面战场的摧毁标志，突然意识到这只不过是人类所经历过的无数战争中的一次，尽管如此，人类依然生生不息。因此，正如温暖的太阳、舒适的天堂和我周围上帝所创造的其他生灵一样，人类也一定是永恒不朽的。驾驶舱内的温度在零度以下，然而这一神圣的顿悟却使舱内暖意融融。我意识到，至少对我而言，这就是开启已经丢失很久的幸福之门的钥匙。过一天算一天，不希求有明天的感觉顿时变成了未来的安全感。心里有了这条真理，人们就会努力去创造一个更美好的生活家园。

This awakening came late to me, but with my children it will not be left to happenstance, for I have long since begun to show them the tying in of man’s immortality with the ageless evidences which are everywhere about us: the great artist’s glorious paintings of the heavens at sunrise and sunset; the delicate fragrance of a rose; the simple miracle of a newly born lamb; the massive majesty of snowcapped, purple mountains; the mysterious, many-faced sea hiding a thousands other worlds beneath its cloak; the twinkling lights from stars a billion miles away. They have learned these things are of God and are immortal, just as the music and the paintings of the old masters are God-given and ageless.
这种顿悟对我来说来得迟了些，但这样的偶然事件决不会发生在我的孩子们身上，因为我早就开始让他们看到人类的不朽和我们周围无处不在的永恒之间的联系——造物主对日出日落时天堂辉煌景象的描绘，一朵玫瑰的幽香，一只初生羊羔身上展示的生命奇迹，顶峰被积雪覆盖的伟岸的紫色群山，大海在它神秘多变的外衣下所掩藏的无数其他的世界，遥远的星空中星辰闪耀的光芒。他们懂得了这些都出自于上帝的创造，都是永恒的，正如伟大的艺术家们所创造的音乐和画作也是上帝赐予的，也是永恒的一样。

“But Daddy,” they have asked me, “the papers say the Atom Bomb will kill off the human race someday, is that so?” How certainly I can assure them now, believing in the imperishability of man as I do. People said that when the spear came into existence, and the bow and arrow, and guns and bullets, and planes and bombs. But there has been someone more powerful than all these forces, and so we are here today, greater in number, healthier in body, and more advanced in science and learning than ever.Have patience with all this hysteria, I tell them. After all, mankind is only a youngster, like one of you. The Earth is an unknown millions of years old, while man is a mere 6,000 years of age. Mankind is still growing up, comparatively, and his growth can be likened to your own. Its like you and the neighboring children who have words and fight. Someone gets a black eye, but you make up and then you work and play together again, and as you grow more mature you fight less often because you become more intelligent. So will it be with the world.