最新四级晨读主题美文100篇 26（在线收听）

Love Is Not Like Merchandise

A reader in Florida apparently2 bruised3 by some personal experience, writes in to complain, “If I steal a nickel’s4 worth of merchandise, I am a thief and punished; but if I steal the love of another’s wife, I am free.”

This is a prevalent5 misconception in many people’s minds — that love, like merchandise, can be “stolen”. Numerous states, in fact, have enacted6 laws allowing damages for “alienation of affections7”.

But love is not a commodity; the real thing cannot be bought, sold, traded or stolen. It is an act of the will, a turning of the emotions, a change in the climate of the personality．

When a husband or wife is “stolen” by another person, that husband or wife was already ripe for the stealing, and was already predisposed8 toward a new partner. The “lovebandit9” was only taking what was waiting to be taken, what wanted to be taken.

We tend to treat persons like goods. We even speak of children “belonging” to their parents. But nobody “belongs” to anyone else. Each person belongs to himself. Children are entrusted10 to their parents, and if their parents do not treat them properly, the state has a right to remove them from their parents’ trusteeship11.

Most of us, when young, had the experience of a sweetheart being taken from us by somebody more attractive and more appealing12. At the time, we may have resented this intruder—but as we grew older, we recognized that the sweetheart had never been ours to begin with13. It was not the intruder that “caused” the break, but the lack of a real relationship．

On the surface, many marriages seem to break up because of a “third party.” This is, however, a psychological14 illusion15. The other woman or the other man merely serves as a pretext16 for dissolving a marriage that had already lost its essential integrity17.
爱情不是商品

　　一位佛罗里达州读者显然是在个人经历上受过创伤，他写信来抱怨道：“如果我偷走了五分钱的商品，我就是个贼，要受到惩罚；但是如果我偷走了他人妻子的爱情，我没事儿。”

这是许多人心目中普遍存在的一种错觉——爱情，像商品一样，可以“偷走”。实际上，许多州都颁布法令，允许索取“情感转让”赔偿金。

　　但是爱情并不是商品；真情实意不可能买到、卖掉、交换，或者偷走。爱情是一种意愿的行为，是感情的转向，是个性上的变化。

　　当丈夫或妻子被另一个人“偷走”时，那个丈夫或妻子就已经具备了被偷走的条件，事先已经准备接受新的伴侣了。这位“爱匪”不过是取走等人取走、盼人取走的东西。

　　我们往往待人如物。我们甚至说孩子“属于”父母。但是谁也不“属于”谁。人都属于自己。孩子是托付给父母的，如果父母不善待他们，政府有权取消父母对他们的托管身份。

　　我们多数人年轻时都有过恋人被某个更有魅力、更迷人的人夺去的经历。在当时，我们兴许怨恨这位不速之客——但是后来长大了，也就认识到了心上人本来就不属于我们。并不是不速之客 “导致了”决裂，而是缺乏真正的感情。

　　从表面上看，许多婚姻似乎是因为有了 “第三者”才破裂的。然而这是一种心理上的错觉。另外那个女人，或者另外那个男人，无非是作为借口，用来解除早就不是完好无损的婚姻罢了。