研究生英语教程(上Unit 7 Human Nature.docx

Unit7 Human NatureText A A Woman of Rare Beauty Shares Words of Rare GraceJames Stephen Behrens1 It is said that the true nature of being is veiled. The labor of words, the expression of art, and the seemingly ceaseless human thought all have in common the need to get at what really is so. The hope to draw close to and possess the truth of being can be a feverish one. In some cases it can even be fatal, if pleasure is one’s truth and its attainment more important than life itself. In other lives, though, the search for what is truthful gives life.2 I used to find notes left in the collection basket, beautiful notes about my homilies and about the writer’s thoughts on the daily scriptural readings. The person who penned the notes would add reflections to my thoughts and would always include some quotes from poets and mystics he or she had read and [ remembered and loved. The notes fascinated me. Here was someone immersed in a search for truth and beauty. Words had been treasured, words that were beautiful. And I felt as if the words somehow delighted in being discovered, for they were obviously very generous to the as yet anonymous writer of the notes. And now this person in turn learning the secret of sharing them. Beauty so p shines when given away. The only truth that exists is, in that sense, free.3It was a long time before I met the author of the notes. One Sunday morning, I was told that someone was waiting for me in the office. The young person who answered the rectory door said that it was ‘‘ the woman who said she left all the notes. ” When I saw her, I was shocked, since I immediately recognized her from church but had no idea that it was she who wrote the notes. She was sitting in a chair in the office with her hands folded in her lap. Her head was bowed and when she raised it to look at me, she could barely smile without pain. Her face was disfigured, and the skin so tight from surgical procedures that smiling or laughing was very difficult for her. Sh