《Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance 》

早晨，喝咖啡时，随手翻了翻桌子上的奥巴马的《Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance 》， 重新读了他2004年再版时的前言，还是如第一次读一样，非常感动。

我承认：每次我读奥巴马的文字，都能感受到他流畅优美文字下的诗意，温柔和人性。。。

这样美丽简洁的英文不是经常能读到的，应该做中学生教材。

新总统是个大才子啊！

这是他写母亲的一段：

The exception is my mother, whom we lost, with a brutal swiftness, to cancer a few months after this book was published.

She had spent the previous ten years doing what she loved. She traveled the world, working in the distant villages of Asia and Africa, helping women buy a sewing machine or a milk cow or an education that might give them a foothold in the world's economy. She gathered friends from high and low, took long walks, stared at the moon, and foraged through the local markets of Delhi or Marrakesh for some trifle, a scarf or stone carving that would make her laugh or please the eye. She wrote reports, read novels, pestered her children, and dreamed of grandchildren.

We saw each other frequently, our bond unbroken. During the writing of this book, she would read the drafts, correcting stories that I had misunderstood, careful not to comment on my characterizations of her but quick to explain or defend the less flattering aspects of my father's character. She managed her illness with grace and good humor, and she helped my sister and me push on with our lives, despite our dread, our denials, our sudden constrictions of the heart.

I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book - less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life. In my daughters I see her every day, her joy, her capacity for wonder. I won't try to describe how deeply I mourn her passing still. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.

中国人到底有多少钱？（2）

七月无奈，只好年年往北京跑，只是假期有限，刚住了几天就要往回跑。

三年前，用圣诞节和新年的假期陪老爸走访他的老友，到了北京顺义的“东方太阳城”，忽然眼睛一亮，这里水波荡漾，空气清新，绿树成荫，新起的楼群，高不过5层，园内图书馆，健身房，会馆饭店，棋室舞厅，高尔夫球场，应有尽有。原来这是某大开发公司，去美国请来了佛罗里达棕榈滩的建筑师，设计的中国第一退休城。

老爸和老友东扯西聊，兴致很高，七月突然说：“爸，你喜欢这里，我干脆给你买套房，你在城里住腻了，就来这里换换空气，散散心”。大家都说这主意好，马上打电话给售房处，要了文件合同，交了1万元的定金，定了一套三期工程的150平米，3房2厅2卫的房子。

中国人到底多有钱？

父母在，不远游。可惜，七月不孝，一个人跑到了大洋彼岸，将父母扔在国内。

前几年，搬进新房子时，就把原来的condo留下来，准备给父母养老用，这个condo有美丽的庭院，老式的壁炉，温暖的橡木地板，而且地点特好。一出门就是到芝加哥downtown 和China town的汽车，过马路就是芝加哥大学的东亚图书馆，这东亚图书馆可是全世界第一流的，中文书应有尽有，图书馆的边上是芝大医院和芝大体育馆。再走几十米，就是今天新总统，当年的参议院奥巴马的豪宅（其实也算不上毫宅）和密执根湖畔。。。可惜，老人家住了三个月后，誓死要回中国，说就是以后住老人院，也不愿在美国呆着。

草原上的诗人

10年前的那个夏天。在一个月里，他开车带着我，去了俄亥俄州的克利夫兰，密执根州的安娜堡，佛罗里达州的迈阿密，加州的戴维斯和芝加哥的海德园。他刚完成了PH.D，好运气地找到了5份工作。他问：“那个地方你最想去？”“芝加哥的海德园”，我毫不犹豫地回答。几个星期后，我为自己在芝加哥找到了工作，忙得连毕业典礼也没参加，把所有的财产装进了本田车的后车箱，来到了芝加哥。

他已经把房子为我租好了，在一座1896年建的凹字形红砖楼里，中间是个院子，开满了鲜花，两边的碎石走道很深很长。据说，当年芝加哥是根据房子在街上的宽度收税的，于是所有的房子两边的距离很窄，却是庭院深深深几许。进门后，就可以看见一盏铁铸雕花的的灯，温暖的光洒在斑驳的橡木地板上，深咖啡色的法式玻璃门隔开了客厅和饭厅，墙角是一个乳白色的三角柜，从一面墙的窗户里外望，我看见了不远处的一座日本式大屋顶的房子，我的心怦怦地跳。