如标题所述

苹果里的星星
作者：迪·恩·帕金斯
  一个人的错误，有可能侥幸地成为另一个人的发现。
  儿子走上前来，向我报告幼儿园里的新闻，说他又学会了新东西，想在我面前显示显示。他打开抽屉，拿出一把还不该他用的小刀，又从冰箱里取出一只苹果，说：“爸爸，我要让您看看里头藏着什么。”
  “我知道苹果里面是什么。”我说。
  “来，还是让我切给您看看吧。”他说着把苹果一切两半——切错了。我们都知道，正确的切法应该是从茎部切到底部窝凹处。而他呢，却是把苹果横放着，拦腰切下去。然后，他把切好的苹果伸到我面前：“爸爸看哪，里头有颗星星呢。”
  真的，从横切面看，苹果核果然显一个清晰的五角星状。我这一生不知吃过多少苹果，总是规规矩矩地按正确的切法把它们一切两半，却从未疑心过还有什么隐藏的图案我尚未发现！于是，在那么一天，我孩子把这消息带回家来，彻底改变了冥顽不化的我。
  不论是谁，第一次切“错”苹果，大凡都仅出于好奇，或由于疏忽所致。使我深深触动的是，这深藏其中，不为人知的图案竟具有如此巨大的魅力，它先从不知什么地方传到我儿子的幼儿园，接着便传给我，现在又传给你们大家。
  是的，如果你想知道什么叫创造力，往小处说，就是苹果——切“错”的苹果。

The Wise Songird
a philosophical story
contributed by: anonymous

Once upon a time there was a golden songbird that lived in a beautiful garden. It spent all its days singing the loveliest songs to the honour of its maker and the delight of all the people who heard it.
But the keeper of the garden, who was a foolish and greedy man, coveted the little songster, and one day he made a cunning net in which he snared it. The little bird begged the man to release him and promised to tell him three great secrets if only he would let him go. Now the gardener really was a very greedy man and rubbing his hands together, he eagerly released the bird.
Then the songbird told him it’s three great secrets:
Never believe all that you hear;
Never regret what you have never lost, and never throw away that which you have in your keeping.
The gardener was furious when he heard this and said he had known these so-called ‘secrets’ since he was a little child and shouted that the bird had tricked him. But the songbird quietly replied that if the man had really known these three secrets, or only the last of them, he would never have let him go.
Then the bird added:
“I have a most precious jewel weighing over three ounces hidden inside me and whoever possesses that marvellous stone will have every wish granted.”
On hearing this, the keeper roared like a lion and cursed himself for setting the songster free. But the little bird only added fuel to his rage by explaining that since he weighed no more than half an ounce at most, as anyone with eyes could plainly see, how was it possible that a gem weighing more than three ounces could be hidden within it’s tiny body?
At that the man tore his hair and lunged at the bird in a towering rage, but the little songbird flew to a nearby branch and added sweetly:
“Since you never had the jewel in your hands you are already regretting what you never lost, and believing what I told you, you threw it away by setting me free.”
Then the little songbird told the man to study well these three great secrets and so become as wise as the bird himself!
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