Can You Stand
without Your Feet on the Ground
by Henry Smith
One day when I
was preparing a new lesson in my study, my five-year-old
daughter entered the room with a doll in her hand.
As soon as she saw me, she said, “Dad, I
have a question to ask you.”
“Yes,
please. What is it?” I replied.
“Can you
stand without your feet on the ground?” she
added.
“Oh, no,
I can't,” I regretted.
“How
stupid you are! Listen to me. I can tell you the
way.” As she said that, she tried to put her
little doll on my writing desk.
“Look,
you can make it stand on a chair or a desk like
this. And you don't put your feet on the ground
but you can still stand, that’s OK?”
“Oh,
thank you, my dear. I wasn't able to think of an
answer as good as that. How clever you are! But
can I stand with my head on the ground instead of
my feet?” I said.
“Oh, no,
Dad. That is not called standing.”
I made no
answer.
She rushed out,
looking rather pleased with herself as if she had
won.
When she left
the room, I found myself sitting at the desk,
lost in thought. Her question might be silly.
After all, she is a child of five. Her thoughts
were very simple, but she still tried to do
experiments again and again. I am sure that she
had practiced making her doll stand for a long
time before she came to me. Could I do the same
thing? Sorry, I couldn’t. Besides, why
didn’t I tell her that I could and then I
used my head for a better way? If so, might I
have been mean and I wouldn’t have been a
thoughtful and caring father? Well, it is not
easy to deal with everything very well. A little
girl could put you into the trouble of answering
such a small question, not to say the students at
Middle School. So, you have to better yourself in
all aspects of life. Having a lot of knowledge of
English is not enough to be a perfect man!
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