文字紀錄/Chih 編輯整理/阿孚
「你好！」James用中文做了開場，引起在場大家一陣開心的笑聲。來自加拿大的James已經在台灣超過十年了，他運用擔任英文老師的經驗與擅長與觀眾互動的幽默感，在整場分享中，不時逗得觀眾們開懷大笑，而他那天分享故事的核心是「Don’t be afraid of life」，這看似短短的一句話，卻深深影響他一生，尤其是教會他這句道理的父親Khan。
其實Khan不是他親生的父親，用中文來說應該算就是「乾爸」。因為一次家中買賣房子的談話，讓兩個人種下了不解之緣，從當Khan的保母、公司助理，Khan從各個領域教導他探索這個世界，「外人會覺得這個人、或是他們這段關係很奇怪……」，但James覺得「wow！這個人實在是太有趣了！」Khan這一生中去過了超過五十個國家，James說：「每一次我很興奮的跟他說，我去了哪裡哪裡，他只會淡淡地回說：喔，去過了。」讓同樣去過很多地方旅行的他大吃一驚，即使他已經旅行超過20個國家也很難趕上他爸。
大學畢業後James待在NGO，為了籌措旅費，他爸爸鼓勵他騎腳踏車橫越加拿大，一般人都覺得困惑，要怎麼靠騎腳踏車賺錢呢？騎腳踏車和籌旅費又有什麼關係？但他從公司、報章雜誌等募到的錢甚至遠多於他原先預計要籌的旅費 。
當初來到了台灣後的第兩個星期，James曾哭著打電話回家，跟他爸爸說：「我不喜歡這裡，不喜歡我的工作，我想要回家！」，但Khan的一句話讓他改變了想法，甚至也改變了他的一生，在台灣一待就是十年。
「Don’t be afraid of life.」
Khan建議他休息一個星期，好好的放鬆去做他自己想做的事情，不要擔心自己的工作、不要擔心錢，不要害怕生命。兩個星期後，James打電話回去說「I love Taiwan! Taiwan is great!」，可愛的他又逗得大家哄堂大笑。
在台灣的這段時間，他與許多人共事過，包括總統馬英九先生。當時還是台北市長的他，因緣際會讓James到了澳洲。「『Mr. James』，馬英九總是習慣這樣叫我，我後來有次回他：『馬先生，我的名字是James，你可以叫我Mr. Lloyd，這是我的家族名字』，馬英九回：「好的，Mr. James!」」這段故事又引來一陣大笑。
最後結束前，他撥了一段有關他爸爸Khan的紀錄片。大約兩年前，Khan因為癌症過世。在他過世前，他嘗試想要幫助那些同樣因為癌症受苦的人舒服些，他說：「我們都因為某種形式的愛連結在一起，我們才更需要幫助、支持他們」。
James的分享帶給我們很大的力量，更精確地說，James的爸爸Khan將這股力量交給了他，而James又從分享會之中，將這股力量散播像漣漪一樣傳遞的更遠。
- James經典語錄：
“Dream as if you live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” This is a famous quote from James Dean.
- James與Khan 的故事：
This is my dad, or this is Khan. In the town I lived in, everybody eats meat and potato, and their dream job was working for Honda, because Honda has a big car factory near my home. The dream was small, but Khan was a different kind of guy. My dad was a different kind of guy.
So, he opened my eyes to many things. He made me eat strange food for the first time. He talked about his travel in many countries. He spent a few years in India…it’s in 70’s, long time ago, living with local people. He was so different, and to most of people around him, he was 很奇怪. But to me, he was, wow, so interesting.
- James騎腳踏車橫越加拿大的故事：
When I finished university, I was referent. I want to break out, I want to do something different. Khan, my dad, many years before, went to (sandigar) with this group, Canada World Youth.
Canada World Youth is a NGO, thank you said NGO before. And what they do is, very similar to in美國, they have the peace Corp, Corp like group. They send young people to developing world, third world and you can do some projects to help them up.
And my dad has joined this group before, and he thought that maybe I could try out. They only choose ten people from Canada every year. So I felt I’m not so special, how can I join this group? My father said 沒問題, you’ll be in. So he pushed me to go to some interviews and finally in the end, they picked me, they choose me, OK, great.
NOT FOR GREAT! Got some trouble, from racing. So 20000, is it? My money is not so much as 20000, we only have 2000. But 20000 or 2000 if you don’t have a job, you don’t have no much, it’s still a million dollar!
So we went to some meetings and they told, if you want to raise enough money, here some ideas. You can sell cookie! You can have a car wash. You can do ABCD. But it was a summer time, I just graduated from university, I don’t want to sell cookie! So my dad said why don’t you do something big? Why don’t do something what you love? I was always sport and being active so he said, why don’t try… riding your bicycle across Canada? And I said, “Are you crazy man?”
Number 1, Canada is the 2nd biggest country in the world! Number 2, why will anybody give me money for that? Would you pay? It’s ridiculous!
So he said, OK, OK, I help you. So he wrote some letters to the TV station, to the radio, to the newspaper. And soon, people were calling me, and were like, “Hey, what do you doing? Are you traveling to across Canada…” And then I started to get sponsor: this store, that store, this company, they started to give me money, and “Hey, this is cool!” So I bought a bicycle, a new bicycle, I got a bag, for the bicycle. I paid for all of the equipment and basically all the money was raised.
In fact, I passed the 2000 dollars. I raised almost 10000 for this group, which was great, even the airplane tickets to fly whole. So what were like travel, I started here, from the Hooper Island, just you know as the same size of Taiwan.
Starting here…. , this is the rocky mountain, BTW, very difficult to go up, very FUN to go down! It was over 8000 KM. It took me 76 days. It was a lot of fun.
- James剛來台灣的故事：
When I first got to Taiwan, I like it, it was fun, but after about two weeks, I didn’t like it anymore. I couldn’t find friends, I didn’t know what I want to do, my job wasn’t so good, I was working like 安親班, something like that. It wasn’t for me, I didn’t feel challenge, I didn’t what to do, I wanted to go home.
I remembered the day I called my dad on cell phone, and I was walking by 台北車站, and I was crying, “Dad, I don’t like here anymore, I want to leave!”, and he said, “Come down, don’t be afraid of life”, so I said, “OK, OK, I don’t know what to do, I want to leave right now!”, and he said, ”OK, you take one week, and just one week and relax, and don’t worry about your job, don’t about money, just find something you like” 我喜歡打籃球, find some guys to play basketball with, and something like this.
So after one week, I called him back and I said, “I love Taiwan! Taiwan is great! Expect 臭豆腐!” It’s not a big story, but I think it is important like sometimes when you hit the wall, you just have to push through it. And without his pa
ssionate, and without his advice, I don’t think that I would do that. I have been in Taiwan for ten years now. That one week definitely change my life.
文字果醬 JAM of Life 