I was sitting next to a man I had not met before, at my new “American” church, in Seattle. So, I reached out with my hand and said, as is my usual style, “my name is Reggie, what’s yours?” He answered, “My name is Rusty.” All of a sudden, all kinds of jokes came into my mind about Rusty, how things get rusty very quickly, rusty nails, rusty humans etc., but this being the first time I met him, I “controlled myself.” And I suspect that maybe he has already heard all the jokes!

有一次我在西雅图新参加的“美国”教会里，身边坐着一位陌生男士。于是，我习惯地向他伸手说，“我叫Reggie，你叫什么名字？”。他回答，“我叫Rusty（锈蚀）”。一瞬间，我脑海里出现了所有与锈蚀相关的笑话：像很快生锈的东西、生锈的钉子、生疏的人等等。可是，这毕竟是我第一次跟他见面，所以我“克制住”自己了。而且，我猜他可能已经听过所有这些笑话！

Being rusty I guess may not really be that funny. You could admit to others that your tennis skills are getting rusty, and that would be benign. But, someone could take offense if you said that he was “getting rusty,” especially if he was getting on in years. We all know that rustiness means some kind of oxidation, with the implication of deterioration.

我想，“生锈”可能也没那么好玩。对别人承认你的网球打得有些生疏了，还算是无害的。但如果你说对方“开始生锈”，尤其对年迈的人来说，可能会得罪他们。我们都知道锈蚀意味着一种氧化，也带着劣化的含义。

I once met the CEO of Chiquita, the company renowned for producing and transporting huge numbers of fruits, like the famous Chiquita bananas, and found out he was clearly an expert on rustiness. He and I were on the Board of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and one day he invited me to visit his company. Most courteously, he explained to me that one of the most exciting things that happened when the “Iron Curtain” in Europe was lifted, around 1989, was to be able to supply increasingly large numbers of bananas into Eastern Europe! You may have heard about “Ping Pong Diplomacy,” when the US Ping Pong Team got along so well with the China Team that it opened the door of the so called “Bamboo Curtain.” Well this was “Banana Diplomacy,” in my view.

我曾经见过因运输大量有名的奇基塔（Chiquita）香蕉等水果而闻名的奇基塔公司的老总，发现他显然是一个锈蚀专家。当时他和我做辛辛那提儿童医院医疗中心的董事会会员，有一天他邀请我去探访他的公司。他谦逊有礼地给我解释，当欧洲的“铁幕” 在1989年左右被解除时，最让人兴奋的事情之一就是能够向东欧供应更多的香蕉！你可能听说过“乒乓外交”，美国的乒乓球队和中国队的友好关系打开了所谓的“竹幕”。那么，在我看来这就是“香蕉外交”。

It turns out that Eastern Europeans had been literally starving for bananas before that, and nearly all had not had the pleasure of tasting delicious bananas! Practically impossible to believe, for those of us who have lived always with inexpensive bananas around us, not knowing our “privileged situation.” The reason for the banana deprivation was the great difficulty of transporting bananas, from their relatively hot countries of origin to distant lands, without undergoing oxidation, or “rustiness,” or blackening of the beautiful bananas. And he explained that Chiquita bananas have dominated the world, because of their largest ocean tanker food fleet in the world, built to transport easily perishable foods such as bananas, by flooding their containers with carbon dioxide, thus eliminating the oxygen which causes oxidation damage. Successful anti-oxidation on a massive scale.

原来，在此之前东欧人对香蕉的渴求非常大，几乎没有人享受过可口的香蕉美味！对我们这些一直可以随时买到廉价香蕉，不知自己处境有多“优越”的人来说，这简直难以置信。这种香蕉匮乏的原因是，在把香蕉从相对炎热的原产国长途运输的过程中避免其氧化，或者说“生锈”，即漂亮的香蕉变黑，是非常困难的一件事。他还解释说，奇基塔香蕉在全球市场占主导地位是因为他们有世界最大的远洋食品船队，该船队是专门为了搬运诸如香蕉之类的容易变质的食物而建造。他们把货箱充满二氧化碳从而消除导致氧化损害的氧气。这是大规模的成功抗氧化。

It turns out that “anti-oxidation” is one of the largest markets in the world, especially for women’s skincare, since no woman probably wants to be “oxidized,” and “rusty.” Nor most men. And the anti-aging industry relies on a lot of hype regarding its fantastic, often unreal, unproven products that supposedly combat oxidation. Anti-oxidation is a very sweet, attractive and lucrative word.

原来，“抗氧化”是全球最大的市场之一，尤其在女性护肤方面，因为似乎没有一个女人愿意被“氧化”或“生锈”。大部分男人也是如此。而且，平时抗老化产业依靠的是炒作他们的那些神奇，通常不真实，未经证实的所谓抗氧化产品。抗氧化是又好听又非常吸引人的，有利可图的一个词。

And, while oxidation is not exactly the same as oxygen in the air, it is still a good reminder that many important things in this world are great only within a range, sometimes a very narrow range. We cannot live easily with oxygen levels in the atmosphere far below roughly 20%, but if we give too much oxygen, there are other dangers. For example, if we give high concentrations of oxygen to premature infants, we will damage their eyes.

而且，虽然氧化与空气中的氧气不是同一个概念，它还是可以提醒我们，在这个世界里很多重要的东西只在一定范围内有益，而有时候这个范围非常狭窄。只要大气中的含氧量明显低于20%左右，我们生存就会受到阻碍，但如果给人太多氧气，会出现其它危险。比如说，如果我们给早产婴儿输高浓度的氧气，会让他们的眼睛受损。

This discovery was made as the discipline of neonatology (medical care of sick and small newborn infants) was developing. I was privileged to be one of the early “fathers” of the new specialty, in the late ‘60s. After taking the historic first examination for the specialty, written by our generation, we were then “grandfathered in” with special privileges, like no more exams, compared with regular exams for subsequent generations (life is really unfair for some people)! But then our generation had to learn many very basic lessons, from personal experience, the hard way.

当新生儿科（患病和小新生儿的治疗）刚发展起来的时候，人们就有了这一发现。在60年代末的早期，我很荣幸成为这门新专科之父中的一员。参加由我们当代人编写的，历史性的第一门本专科考试之后，我们就享有了一些特权，例如再也没有考试了，不像后代的常规考试（对有人来说，人生真不公平）！可是，我们这一代人需要从个人经历中吸取教训来学会很多基本知识。

Oxygen, of course is very important for the treatment and survival of premature babies, especially those with lung disease. But, previously, premature and sick infants were often given pure or high concentration oxygen, on the assumption that “more is better,” until we discovered to our horror that we were causing harm. The term “oxygen toxicity” became common: some premature infants developed a condition called retrolental fibroplasia, or other retinal damage, which could lead to blindness, from too much oxygen! I lived through this dangerous phase of our understanding for premature infants, vividly. I learned well the lesson to be careful about “too much of a good thing,” for oxygen, and many other treatments for the baby. Oxygen, the agent of rust, had become the proverbial “double edged sword,” and especially should be handled with the greatest respect.

当然，氧气对早产儿的治疗和存活非常重要，尤其对那些有肺部疾病的婴儿来说。然而，以前医生经常会基于“越多越好”的假设，给早产儿和患病的婴儿输纯氧或高浓度的氧气，直到我们惊恐地发现这是在造成伤害。“氧中毒”成为了一个普遍的术语：因为氧气过多，有的早产儿出现了晶状体后纤维增生症的病情，或者其它可导致失明的视网膜损伤！我亲身经历了这个了解早产儿的危险阶段。在氧气与很多其它婴儿治疗方面，我很好地吸取了教训，要注意“好东西也不能太多 ”。氧气这个生锈的媒介，成为了那所谓的“双刃刀”，尤其应该极其慎重地来处理。

If we leave home for a long period, when we return, we get to see “rust in action.” It’s apparent that “nature has taken over,” nails and metal areas have become rusty, and the house has become rundown, with cobwebs, wild grass and mold. Generally, we like to attribute this all to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, that natural things have a natural way of getting rusty, and run down, that everything actually goes downhill and deteriorates. There is actually a warning by the great Teacher, that indeed everything in this earth, especially wealth, will be subject to “rust and moth.” There is no such thing as a naturally upward spontaneous improvement, unless we do something positive about it. All of life indeed, joins in this “natural order of life,” and we all age, we deteriorate, our systems start failing, and we ultimately die. Getting rusty isn’t a lot of fun.

如果我们离开家很长一段时间，回来的时候能看到“锈蚀在工作”。“被大自然占领”是很明显的：钉子和金属的地方都生锈，房屋变破旧，遍布蜘蛛网，到处长野草和霉。一般来说，我们习惯把这一切归咎于热力学第二定律，就是说自然界的事物自然而然会生锈老化，事实上所有东西都会走下坡路而衰败。伟大的老师其实警告过，世上的一切，尤其是财富，都会“生锈和虫蛀”。在大自然中自发性向上改善是不存在的，除非我们积极采取行动。一切生命参与这个“生命的自然规律”，我们都会变老，退化，我们的身体系统开始失效，而最终我们会去世。生锈确实不太好玩。

Rustiness can even be dramatically lethal. During my medical and teaching missions, in mountain minority tribe areas, I cringe when I see kids running around with bare feet in the sand, since they could easily step on the many rusty nails, lying around from construction projects. These rusty nails can cause infections, tetanus, or even death. For a prevention minded pediatrician, it seems like an “accident waiting to happen.” Rusty nails and barefoot kids is not a good combination.

锈蚀甚至可能是非常致命的。当我在山区的少数民族部落中进行医疗和教学工作时，看到小孩子在沙地上光着脚跑来跑去令我感到害怕，因为他们容易踩到建筑项目周围的许多生锈的钉子上。这些生锈的钉子可能会造成感染、破伤风甚至死亡。对一个预防意识强的儿科医生来说，看起来“早晚会出事的”。生锈的钉子和光脚的小孩子不是一个好组合。

The Great Teacher actually says there is a place with “no rust or moth,” a place at least 50% of the world technically believes in! That would be a good safe place, with no rust at all. Presumably no black bananas, no skin oxidation problems, no rusty nails. I would like that. I have a naturally competitive spirit, and thus I’m even planning on getting there before you, so “popganmi bon sawan,” or “see you in heaven,” in Thai (at least in my rendition)

其实，那位伟大的老师还说，有一个“没有锈蚀和虫蛀”的地方，而世界上至少50%的人在理论上相信这一点！那会是一个安全的好地方，根本不会生锈，想必也没有变黑的香蕉，没有皮肤氧化问题，没有生锈的钉子。我会喜欢的。我天生有很强的竞争精神，于是打算在你前面到达那里——“博甘米 本 撒万”，就是泰语的“在天堂见”（至少按照我的翻译版本）。

For more stories, readers are invited to visit reggietales.org or WeChat at “UncleReggie,” or get the books titled “coffee with Uncle Reggie.”

想阅读更多故事，读者可以浏览reggietales.org网页，加入“UncleReggie”微信群，或找《与曾书书喝咖啡闲聊》书籍。