一只蜘蛛经验.docVIP

一只蜘蛛的经验 　　刘鹏、朱一童译 　　 　　since I moved from London and started living in the Italian countryside, I have encountered a greater variety of strange insects than I even thought existed. I have also become more of an observer. 　　A spider built a web outside my office window. My policy these days tends to be one of live and let live. So I just let it be. Every so often, when I took a break from working, I would go to the window and there he would be; perfectly still, waiting in exactly the same place. In fact, he was there for many weeks; about three or four at least. 　　He caught something on a couple of occasions; a moth and a fly. However, in the last few weeks, he caught nothing at all. But he stayed there anyhow, perfectly still―waiting. I wondered if he was getting quite hungry by now. 　　One day, I went to the window and the web was still there but the spider was gone. He’d cut his losses and moved on. I found that there were several lessons in his behavior: 　　（1） Persistence. How many of us give up in life when desired results don’t materialize immediately? Adults are particularly prone to this in a way that children are not. Imagine if we had given up when we were learning to walk as quickly as we do these days when we try anything new! This little fellow stayed persistently at the task for weeks if necessary until he eventually achieved his goal. 　　What are the chances of catching an insect in any one hour segment? Pretty low. However, this spider knows that if he eventually sticks to the task, he will succeed in the end. 　　（2） Know when to quit. Persistence is import-ant. However, knowing when it’s time to move on is also crucial. Someone defined insanity as “doing the same things you’ve always done and expecting a different result”. Clearly, this spider was not insane. He knew when to quit. 　　That’s more than many of us know. We happily sweat away at the same situations, do things the exact same way we’ve always done them, but expect or hope for a diff