「兩週一聚」第二十期題目: 【有一天】(三) / 「2weeks1gather」#20: 【One Fine Day】(Part 3)

(三)

數年之後,在一個暮秋的晚上,我和女友在郊外露營,我們瑟縮在睡袋內以身体保持大家溫暖,帳篷外漆黑一片,遠処森林野犬怒吼,我不能入睡,心裏有預感知道我病危的嫲嫲会在這深夜逝世。或許在憤怒和悲哀之間,我是選擇了逃避,和女友出外露營,不願与家人圍床目睹死亡帶走我深愛的親人。

憤怒的青年就是要打破上一代壓下來的責任枷鎖,在年青的我來說,什么中西宗教儀式,不論是僧道唸誦七日七夜的梵經,燒金銀衣紙賄賂陰司路過金橋銀橋,或是敎宗保祿在埾馬可廣場週末祈禱,募集信徒捐款起宏偉圓頂尖頂的大敎堂,都不能帶回我逝去的親人和童年的欢樂日子。我答应有一天,我將会重溫舊夢,找尋那失去的孩提回憶,繼續和嫲嫲爺爺上街市買餸,和街坊小童玩兵賊丶抓子丶十字界豆腐,与同學上賽西湖捉金絲貓。在那寂靜的郊野深夜中,我在嫲嫲離去的時候熟睡了,在夢中我似乎又回到那彼得Pan永遠不長大的兒童樂園。

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

English Précis of "One Fine Day":

The story is about the coming of age. How the worry-free world of innocent childhood all of a sudden crumpled to an end with the death of the family's patriarch, the grandfather. Unwilling to shoulder the burden of being the bloodline's eldest grandson, the young man was looking for escape, grasping the last straw of fading memory, trying desperately to return to that one-fine-day when the telephone never rang.

( Fin / 完 )

>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Update 20090817:
(The following is in response to the comments by Fresh Designer 新鮮人)

Sorry I did not explain well the links and relationships btwn: 上一代的壓力,中西傳統,和死亡,童年等等.

You see, in the traditional Chinese family, the eldest male of each generation was responsible for the continuation and prosperity of the lineage (血統，世系，門第)。So when the family patriarch in the story died, the responsibility fell onto the shoulder of the eldest son, the young man's father. However, the eldest grandson was also expected to participate and represent the next next generation in the funeral ritual conducted by the nuns and monks. Having been brought up in colonial Hong Kong, the young man found himself being pulled apart by the need to be a "feudally-good" grandson in front of family friends and relatives, and his own belief that the whole funeral ritual was nothing but pure superstition, or even worse, a money-making scheme in the name of religion(s). As Best Actor pointed out, coming of age is always a bittersweet feeling and it is reflected in the young man's desire to run away from the imposed responsibility and remain in Never Never Land (named in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan story). The mention of 彼得 Pan is also an indirect inference to the so-called "Peter Pan Syndrome" which became popular in 1983 after the publication of "The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up", by Dr. Dan Kiley who, according to Wikipedia, also wrote a companion book, The Wendy Dilemma, published in 1984. I hope the above helps clarify the storyline.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Updated 20090831:

Peter Pan syndrome / Puer aeternus

Peter Pan syndrome is a pop-psychology term used to describe an adult who is socially immature. The term has been used informally by both laypeople and some psychology professionals in popular psychology since the 1983 publication of The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up, by Dr. Dan Kiley. (Kiley also wrote a companion book, The Wendy Dilemma, published in 1984.)

Puer Aeternus is Latin for eternal child, used in mythology to designate a child-god who is forever young; psychologically it refers to an older man whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level, usually coupled with too great a dependence on the mother. The puer typically leads a provisional life, due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. He covets independence and freedom, chafes at boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_Syndrome#Peter_Pan_syndrome )