He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk!
他说,在他看来,这一切都应与两岁时他和母亲的一次经历有关。当时,他想从冰箱里拿一瓶牛奶。可是瓶子太滑了,他没有抓住,牛奶瓶子掉在了地上,牛奶溅得满地都是——看上 去简直是一片牛奶的海洋。
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"
他的母亲跑到厨房,并没有对他大嚷大叫,也没有狠狠地教训或惩罚他,只是说:“哇!罗伯特!你制造的麻烦可真是棒极了!我还从来没有见过这么大的一片牛奶呢!哎,反正奶瓶已经摔碎了,在我们把它打扫干净以前,你想不想在牛奶中玩几分钟呢?”
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. Which do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
他还真的在牛奶中玩了起来。几分钟后,母亲对他说道:“罗伯特,要知道,无论什么时候,当你制造了像这样又脏又乱的场面时,你都必须要把它打扫干净,并且要把每件东西按原样放好。那么你打算怎么收拾呢?我们可以用海绵、毛巾或者拖把来打扫。你想用哪一种呢?”他选择了海绵。很快,他们就一起将那满地的牛奶打扫干净了。
His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
然后,他的母亲又对他说:“罗伯特,刚才你用两只小手拿大牛奶瓶的试验已经失败了。现在我们就到后院去,把瓶子装满水,看看你有没有办法把它拿起来还不会掉。”小罗伯特发现只要用双手抓住瓶子顶部靠近瓶嘴的地方,瓶子就不会从他的手中滑掉。这堂课真是棒极了!