One of the qualities that most people admire in
others is the willingness to admit one’s mistakes. It is extremely hard
sometimes to say a simple thing like "I was wrong about that," and it is even
harder to say, "I was wrong, and you were right about that."
I
had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made a
mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain
grocery store in the neighborhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I
remembered the egg cartons. Then he related an incident and I began to remember
vaguely the incident he was describing.
I was about eight years
old at the time, and I had gone into the store with my mother to do the weekly
grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy
food department where the incident took place.
There must have
been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an impressive display of
eggs in dozen and half-dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four
feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just
then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of
cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back
together, so I wanted to work.
The manager heard the noise and
came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees
inspecting some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him
it looked as though I was the culprit (犯人，罪犯). He severely reprimanded me and
wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to
explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the
incident, apparently the manager did not.How old was the author when he wrote this article
