Off the table?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Off the table?

At the negotiating table, for example, people each announce their own proposals and ideas and then discuss, bargain over them. The proposals and ideas are what they bring to the table, i.e. their contributions to the discussion.

In the top example with Alex and Bob, Alex’s offer was the thing he brought to the table. Bob refused the offer, and so Alex took the offer off the table – removing it from further discussion.

Now, Bob later changed his mind. He wanted the offer back, but it was no longer available. Alex refused to bring it back. Alex was not willing to give Bob a second chance because perhaps he wants to give Bob a lesson, that one should take one’s words seriously and action carefully. As gentlemen, one does not take one’s words back once they’re uttered. Otherwise, all people will begin to take their words back and there’ll never be such thing as agreement, principle or a done deal.

We as Chinese are particularly prone to going back on one’s words – for one good reason or another. Good reason or bad excuse doesn’t matter, really – I’m not going into details as to why this is the case. I’m just saying it is important to recognize that one sometimes has to seize the moment. Once the train leaves the station, as they say, it’s gone.

Well, you can always catch the next train, of course, but it’s not the same. Broadly speaking, one cannot step into the same river twice, as Heraclitus so succinctly put it.