時序入冬，耶誕節的歌聲開始有一搭沒一搭地在巷街裡奏唱著。
每年的這個時節，我總會想起年少時負笈大度山種種。新鮮人時，在路思義教堂聽完《彌賽亞》，並非基督徒的我，隨著團契學長姊們從教堂出發，繞行林樹深處的教員宿舍區。在林樹叢裡找到聖詩班名義上的家長，他們會準備好糕點，等著我們前來報佳音。
畢業前最後的平安夜，我第一次敲響四十九響的鐘聲，《彌賽亞》的歌聲自路思義教堂傳來。
許多年又許多年過去了，大度山平安夜唱《彌賽亞》和報佳音的場景，時常在我心底浮現。
於是福音詩歌成為我生命的一部分，就像此刻聽著Mahalia Jackson的Let’s Pray Together.。
恍惚間我又看到Mahalia Jackson(1911-1972)胖胖的身影，穿著白色連身洋裝，在教堂前獻唱。晃動的身體，低沈、飽滿、充滿張力的聲音，傳達著福音的消息。
1960年，甘迺迪總統的就職典禮，詩人Robert Frost(1874–1963)演講之後，Mahalia受邀獻唱；1963年，在華府的人權大遊行中，金恩博士“I Have A Dream”演講之後，Mahalia獻唱“I’ve Been Bunked and I Have Been Scorned”；1968年，金恩博士的告別式，Mahalia Jackson唱著“Precious Lord, Take My Hand”；四年後的1972年，Mahalia Jackson的告別式再度響起這首歌，由Aretha Franklin演唱。
不是狂歡的耶誕，而是生命的深沈呼喊，我的Mahalia陪伴著我。
讓我們一起祈禱吧！我的Mahalia！
Robert Frost的詩
美國詩人Robert Frost(1874–1963)，有一首著名的詩，“The Road not Taken”，林義雄辭民進黨主度時曾加以引述：
The Road not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
這首詩1920發表於Mountain Interval; 收入：Robert Frost, The Poetry of Robert Frost；edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1916, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1939, 1947, 1949, c 1969 by Holt Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 此外，有一部有關Robert Frost的電影，Finding Frost，中文譯名為《心靈訪客》，描述Robert Frost晚年孤獨地住在一棟樓房，不與外界接觸。故事敘述一個黑人高中生和他的知遇，這個黑人高中生即Robert Frost詩集的編者Edward Connery Lathem。有興趣的網友，或許可以去找來看看。
