爸爸，您总是对的.docVIP

爸爸，您总是对的 　　“不听老人言，吃亏在眼前。”这句俗语不知被“老人”们念叨了多少次，而且往往是在我们因为没听“老人言”而“吃亏”的时候。尽管如此，年少轻狂的我们往往还是会一意孤行，直到有一天蓦然回首，才发现原来那些忠言蕴藏的都是生活的智慧。 　　Some years ago， having just failed out of an eight-year relationship， I was informed by my father that the woman I’d end up with would “wear a woven hat， and she would have a basket of fresh eggs in her hands.” 　　The woman I had until recently dated， and was still massively in love with， could not have resembled this profile less， so， even though my father is not a venturesome1） person and is not given2） to oratorical3） flights of fancy4）， I nodded indulgently and ignored him. He had been getting it wrong about me for years. This didn’t discourage him， or my mother， from regularly offering insight and guidance―my job was to abide it without erupting. I had learned to do that only recently， and was quite proud of my adult self-restraint. 　　I’m still unmarried， but several hundred dates―and several summers working on a farm―later， it appears more and more likely that he will turn out to be right. I’ll never look indifferently at a woman in heels， but I have become someone who wants quiet nights at home with a book in my hand and a down-to-earth partner by my side. 　　These days， I’m on a steady diet of humble pie5） where my father’s concerned. When I was 17 and brawling6） with a friend， he told me to let it go and drift away instead of having it out7）. This was weak-kneed， bourgeois pragmatism， as far as I was concerned―if I were brave， then it would have to be brutal， relationship-imploding truth. Almost 20 years later， I see that he was right， at least when it comes to casual friends―but then how would I have passed the years without all that drama？ He was right when he said not to waste time going back to Russia； when he said that kindness matters above all in a person； when he warned me not to spend generosity and trust as cheaply as I was doing because I wanted to be an American believer instead of a Soviet cynic like him； when he … it’s