Over the next few weeks, a change came over John. Agreement replacedcontrariness(反对,矛盾), quiet, reasoned discussion replaced argument. He became more judicious, more mannerly, more thoughtful, eager to please. “Good dinner, Mom," he would say every evening.
He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him on theniceties(精密,美好)of behaviour; without a word of objection, he would carry in wood for the stove. One day when I suggested that he might start on homework before dinner, John -- a veteranprocrastinator(拖拉者)– said, “You’re right. I guess I will.
When I mentioned this incident to one of his teachers and remarked that I didn't know what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It must be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned it but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend who had not seen our children in a long time, “Could this be John?" he asked, looking up to John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never mistake a person's clothes for the real person within them. But there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see, for practising standards of excellence in though, speech, and behaviour, and for matching what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
【The Magical Coat】相关文章:
★ The beautiful sound of violin
最新
2020-12-21
2020-08-06
2020-07-31
2020-07-30
2020-07-30
2020-07-30