和谈：为自己准备悼词吧

昨天从上午十点开始坐在电视机前，看参议员肯尼迪的告别安葬仪式，一直到晚上八点半。他两个儿子的致词写的非常好，尤其是47岁大儿子的发言，里面有不少很好的观点，事例和幽默:

He was a lover of everything French, cheese, wine, and women.

He said: I know you can do it. There is nothing that you can't do.

My father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable, and that is -- it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event,

He said that most of the other sailors that we race against are smarter and more talented than we are. But the reason why we're going to win is that we will work harder than them, and we will be better prepared. And he just wasn't talking about boating.

He believed that in order to know what to do in the future, you had to understand the past.

My father taught me to treat everyone I meet, no matter what station in life, with the same dignity and respect.

He even taught me some of life's harder lessons, such as how to like Republicans. He once told me -- he said Teddy, Republicans love this country just as much as I do.

And he always told me that -- always be ready to compromise, but never compromise on your principles.

I will try to live up to the high standard that my father set for all of us when he said, the work goes on; the cause endures; the hope still lives; and the dream shall never die.

当他说完“I love you, dad. I always will. And I miss you already.”时，我的眼睛也湿了。

在那一刻，我想到如果在我的父亲去世时，我的悼词应该怎么写。很明显，我的父亲没有那样的智慧，认识，毅力，追求等等，不过从父子这种亲近的关系上来说，在我的生命里，我的父亲也教了我不少东西，我想我也是可以找出些东西写的。

我又想到，如果明天我去世了，我的女儿有材料为我写悼词吗?这一想心里倒紧张起来了。我有什么可以让自己的后代终身受益，让她在追悼她的父亲时可以骄傲地说，为有这样一个父亲而自豪吗? 也许我给了女儿比我父亲给我的多，也就是说，女儿以后为我写悼词要比我哪天为我的父亲写要容易一些，但是仍然是远远不够的。

接着我又想到，其实我们今天的生活中任何一个时刻，任何一个事件都可以成为子女们以后为我们写悼词的材料。每个人的认识程度有异，但是如果都有这样的意识，从现在开始就为下一代准备或者提供悼词的材料，到时候她们还会没有东西写吗?

这样说来，我们的悼词其实都是我们自己写的，不是吗?