PureInsight | May 4, 2008
[PureInsight.org] One day I was
window-shopping and saw a customer who wanted to return a suit. The
shop assistant noticed that the suit was washed, however she did not
point it out in a mean way and handled it without embarrassing the
customer. She said: "Perhaps someone in your family made a mistake and
had the suit washed. I had similar situation before -- when I went for
a business trip, my husband was absent-minded and let the person from
the laundry take a huge pile of clothing to wash. It was just like what
happened to you, wasn't it? Look, there are some marks on the suit that
show it was washed." The customer had nothing to say and perhaps he was secretly
grateful to the shop assistant.
The shop assistant was very kindhearted because she knew how to let
people not be put into ungraceful situations. Gold cannot be pure and
man cannot be perfect. In real life, anyone might make a mistake and
find himself in an embarrassing situation. However, correcting someone
gracefully is a principles to be complied with. The
English poet William Wordsworth said that the god of justice aside,
tolerance is the most perfect behavior for us. Showing someone the
error of his ways with grace is in fact showing tolerance.
It also shows a person's virtue. Only a person with a broad mind and
kind heart can always remember to correct people gracefully. When
people are hurt, many of them might have a big argument and both
parties will be embarrassed. However, when President Lincoln was angry,
he chose to write letters that he did not mail immediately. After he
spent some time writing letters, he became calm and then was able to
deal with the problem rationally. Tolerance doesn't mean forbearance
without limits; however, if one learns how to tolerate as much as he
can, he can avoid many embarrassments.
Correcting someone with good grace always gains friendship and trust,
too. Benjamin Franklin was very arrogant when he was young. He always
humiliated people who held different opinions from his. Later in his
life he changed his personality and no longer embarrassed people. On
the contrary, he was able to frankly accept disagreement. When he was
talking to people, he was much humbler. The change made him many
friends and eventually led him to be a politician who was in charge of
public relations. It is indeed true that correcting someone with grace is always the beginning of making a friend, as well as seeing to
his own success.
Translated from:
http://xinsheng.net/xs/gb/da4print.asp?ID=43029
