I have a friend who birdwatches. She doesn’t call it birdwatching — she calls it “looking at birds and then ticking them off in my bird book” — but that is what it is, and she’s been doing it for 20 years. A family friend gave her the book for her 10th birthday with a note saying that she seemed like a person who really loved the natural world and had a great appreciation for the living creatures around her, particularly the birds. The note, she says, was crucial. By being anointed as the type of kid who loves birds, she immediately became one, feeling sure that the friend had identified an innate quality she hadn’t yet figured out for herself.
我有一个观鸟的朋友。她不称其为观鸟--她称其为“看鸟，然后在我的鸟书上打勾”--但这就是它，而且她已经做了20年了。一位家庭朋友在她10岁生日时送给她这本书，并附上一张纸条，说她看起来是一个真正热爱自然世界的人，对她周围的生物，特别是鸟类，有很高的鉴赏力。她说，这张纸条是至关重要的。通过被指定为爱鸟的那种孩子，她立即成为了爱鸟的人，她觉得自己确信这位朋友已经发现了她自己还没有弄清楚的一种天生的品质。