I like to joke that the best place to write well is actually from prison. In between beatings from the guards, there is often a lot of “free time,” unless you’re in labor camp, I would guess….. Continued from part A….
我喜欢开玩笑说监狱是最适合写作的地方。我猜想在被狱卒拷问间隙，一个人会有很多“空闲时间”。当然如果是劳改，那就另当别论。。。接第一部

In our new condo home in “liquid sunshine” Seattle, I can really hide in my little room, surrounded by my books (or what is left after most were given away before leaving Cincinnati) and pictures that I have accumulated over the years (I have kept all my lifelong pictures), so that I can start to write, write, and write. To be fair, Seattle is lovely in July and August, when the weather is temperate and sunny, with snowcapped mountains in the background. Over many decades, we visited Seattle nearly bi- annually, but only during those great months, so we know. That is probably too beautiful a time to hide and write, so maybe I will take a break? Or maybe it will provide another kind of inspiration? But for the rest of the time, definitely, it would be great to go back to “prison,” and be a serious writer!
在有着“液态阳光”的西雅图的新公寓里，我可以埋头在我那四墙是书（我离开辛辛那提时带过来剩下来没有送人的书）和相片（我可是把出生迄今的相片都存下来了）的小房间里不住的写作，写作，再写作。说句公道话，七月到八月间的西雅图是很可爱的。它有温暖和煦的阳光以及举目可见远方白雪覆盖的高山。我们很清楚这些美景因为在过去数十年来我们几乎每两年都会在那些美好的月份里到西雅图游玩一次。良辰美景当前，我真的应该闭门写作吗或者我可以偷闲一下？又或者外面的世界可以给我意想不到的灵感？不过在其他的月份里，西雅图是百分之百适合我把自己关在家里，像在监狱里一般，做个专注写作的作家。

And from “prison,” it is quite amazing that modern technology allows a vastly different impact from the “good old days.” Remember that the great writer Paul wrote his letters a long time before printing was available, let alone electronic communication. His co-workers and friends had to hand carry his letters through rain and storm, harassments and dangers. Today I can just do this from my laptop and smartphone.
今天的科技让我从我的“监狱里“能对外界有“古时候”不能想象的影响。伟大作家保罗写他的书信时活字印刷都尚未发明更别说是电子通讯了。他的同工和友人必须亲自风雨无阻历经万险地帮他送信。这些事我今天用电脑和手机就可以轻易做到了。

And I have the privilege of a wonderful team of co-conspirators, that help me disseminate the writings. Felicity uploads the articles I write into the worldwide web, see Reggietales.org, started originally by Kevin and Jenny. Who knows what happens from there? Peter, Amy and Dixia upload the articles onto various outlets on wechat, from which I can often get feedback and reactions, especially from China connections, which is just great. I try to upload onto Facebook, and send off currently 2000 “uncle Reggie stories club members through Gmail. These generate quite a bit of quick responses and direct communication. A growing team of translators produce the Chinese versions, since my written Chinese is rudimentary. This allows an instant connection to another world of language and culture, since translators are all native Chinese language friends. Xulon, the publisher helped create the first book version (Coffee with Uncle Reggie), which seems at the moment to be most useful as souvenir gifts of encouragement, particularly by Peter, especially for visiting scholars from China. Though I used to write many pediatric medical and science specialty articles and books, all this is indeed a new experience, so I am learning “the system” step by step, quite a fun thing at age 78.
我很荣幸的有一群志同道合的同工们帮我发送我的文字。Felicity帮我把文章上传到互联网上（Kevin和Jenny帮我设置的Reggietales.org）。Peter, Amy,和Dixia又把我的文章传到不同的微信群里。我常常从那里得到特别是来自中国的读者的反馈。我自己则试着把文章上传到脸书上并寄出给两千多个与曾叔叔故事会会友的电邮里。从这里我可以看到许多读者的及时评论也可以和读者们一对一直接对话。因为我的中文文笔水平很低，我们人数越来越多的翻译团队帮我把文章翻成中文。因为我们的翻译母语都是中文，他们的翻译直接把我的文章植入了中文语境。。出版者Xulon帮我们制作了第一版的 “Coffee with Uncle Reggie”出版书。当时Peter把此书送给来自中国的访问学者，这纪念礼物最合适不过了。虽然我曾经写过许多小儿科医学及科学的文章和书，这些新型的写作以及分享模式对我来讲很新鲜。因此七十八岁的我正兴致勃勃一步步的学习这个“新的系统。”

My great hero of literature is CS Lewis. I got to know his writings when I was in college, especially from reading his classic “Mere Christianity.” At that time, I was living in a British Commonwealth colony, and CS Lewis’s books were quite popular in British circles. But when I came to America, I discovered that nobody really knew him, and it was really maybe 20 years later, that Americans realized there was such a person and his writings. However, after discovery, he became so popular, that he became recognized as one of the giants of 20th century Christianity, and even today, every week I can read something he wrote, or something about him, in any Christian journal.
C·S·路易斯是我在文学上的英雄。我读大学时通过他的名著“返朴归真”初次接触他的写作。那时候我居住在一个英属殖民地，而C·S·路易斯的写作在当时的英国圈子里非常流行。可是我到美国后发现几乎没有人知道他。大概二十年后美国人才发现有这么一个人和他的写作。不过在那之后，他变得非常出名并被人们认定是二十世纪基督信仰核心的巨擘。直到今天我每周都会在基督信仰期刊里读到他所写的或者是有关他的事。

But the most interesting thing about him, I personally think, is that CS Lewis did not travel much beyond his Oxford, Cambridge, and London sphere. He did not fly around the world lecturing, nor explore the world in all the continents. He wrote his stories, his philosophy, and his Christian theology all from his little abode on the Oxford campus. You could say that he was writing from prison, in a sense, since he was separated physically from the world at large, and certainly from Asia, Africa, South America, and North America. His knowledge came from books, and interacting with learned professors and common people, without the help of Wikipedia, Google, or WeChat.
我觉得特别稀奇的是C·S·路易斯大致上没有远离过牛津，剑桥，和伦敦这个圈子。他没有飞到世界各地去演讲，也没有到五大洲去探索世界。他所写的故事，哲理，基督神学都是在牛津学院里的小屋里完成的。从这个角度来看，你可以说它像是在监狱里写作因为他大致上是与世隔绝的，更不用说去亚洲，非洲，南美洲和北美洲了。那时候没有维基百科，谷歌和微信。他的知识源自于书本，他和学识渊博的教授和日常接触的人之间的互动。

Lewis did not know that his writings would have a worldwide impact, and much of the time there was no real feedback, certainly not like today when we can get an electronic response of some kind quite easily, and we can even count the number of “clicks” that one article can get on the internet, as it goes viral. One of my uncle Reggie stories sent to Wechat groups, went “viral,” supposedly resulting in 20,000 “clicks,” which sounded amazing to me; but of course, I then realized that a click does not mean someone actually read the story; he or she only needs to acknowledge seeing the title. Smile. For CS Lewis, his initial responses were from his circle of literary friends, called the Inklings. One of the main responses to his work, from this small club of writers, included those from J.R. Tolkien, who wrote the wildly famous “Lords of the Rings,” and who helped bring Lewis to his Christian faith. Tolkien actually was critical of, and did not like some of his writings, such as his Chronicles of Narnia!
路易斯并不知道日后他的文字会影响全世界。当时他并没有得到多少读者真正的反馈。那时候不像现在我们很轻而易举地可以看到电子传递的反馈，更可以追踪一个爆红文章在网上的点击次数。有一篇“与曾叔叔闲聊”故事在微信里就曾爆红有过两万次点击。我一开始感到很吃惊。我后来想想，点击并不代表阅读。点击只代表点击的人看到过文章的标题。哈。路易斯一开始是从他在”迹象文学社, Inklings” 里的朋友们那里得到对于他的作品的评论。其中一个主要的反馈来自家喻户晓的“魔戒Lords of the Rings”的作者J·R·托爾金 Tolkien。托爾金是把路易斯带进基督信仰的人之一。事实上托爾金不喜欢且批评过路易斯的一些作品包括納尼亞傳奇Chronicles of Narnia。

As you may know, in spite of JR Tolkien’s concerns, Chronicles of Narnia has become one of the historic bestsellers of all time, stories of children who had fascinating experiences in the imaginary world of Narnia. Not a “Christian story” as one might define it, but certainly extremely exciting and interesting, in a setting of difficult moral decisions. Such is the beauty of his writings that many have loved his writings, even non-Christians knowing that he writes from a Christian perspective, since they are truly appreciative of his literary skills and storytelling charm. These are obviously traits that I am trying to follow, consciously or unconsciously, and I hope that in some strange way, as I’m writing from this rather secluded environment, it might have some useful impact on people that I may never really see or know. And all of this can be done quietly now in my little prison cell, mercifully without any jailors beating me up.
如你所知，虽然托爾金对纳尼亚传奇有些批评，納尼亞傳奇最后成为史上最畅销的书籍之一。它讲述了一群孩子们在一个幻想世界納尼亞里引人入胜的故事。它不是一般人定义里的“基督信仰故事”，不过它扣人心弦的地方在于故事里的人们做的艰难的道德抉择。这正是路易斯作品的美妙之处。虽然他是从基督徒角度写作，多数人包括非基督徒还是很喜爱他的文笔和他叙述的迷人故事。这些都是我下意识或潜意识里想要学习的。我希望在这个孤立的环境里我能够对未曾谋面的人有正面的影响。现在这些都可以在我的小囚室里安静地完成。我心存感恩因为这里没有狱卒在等着拷打我。