When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked topoint out my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: Iwas very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, Iwas too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as Icould. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father withtears in my eyes.
　　He listened to me quietly, then asked, Are the things shesays true or not? Jane, didn’t you ever wonder what you’rereally like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go andmake a list of everything she said and mark the points thatare true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.
　　 I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discoveredthat about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’tchange (like being very thin), but a good number I couldand suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I got afairly clear picture of myself.
　　 I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it."That’s just for you," he said. "You know better than anyoneelse the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen,not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. Whensomething said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of helpto you Our world is full of people who think they know yourduty Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear thetruth and do what you know is the right thing to do."
　　 Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many importantmoments In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.
　　
　　我12岁时，有一个死对头，是一个喜欢指出我缺点的女孩。她给我列出的缺点每星期都在增加：我太瘦了，我不是个好学生，我太多话了，我太骄傲了，等等。我尽力地忍耐着，终于，我气坏了，满含泪水跑到我父亲那里。
　　他静静地听我说完，然后问道：“她所说的是不是真的呢?简，你从没有想过你真正是什么样子的吗?嗯，你现在有了那个女孩子对你的评价，去把她所说的列一个清单，再把说得对的作个标记，其他的不要管。”
　　我按照他所说的做了。让我大吃一惊的是，我发现大约有一半是真的。有一些我无法改变(像太瘦了)，但是很多我可以改——突然我很想改变自己。第一次我对自己有了一个很清晰的认识。
　　我把这份清单拿给父亲，他没接。那只是给你的，他说，“你比其他任何人都了解你自己。但是你要学会倾听，而不是一味地充耳不闻，在那里生气，感觉受到伤害。当人们对你的某些评价是真的，你会发现这对你是有帮助的。我们周围充满了很多认为知道你职责义务的人，不要关上你的耳朵，倾听他们所说的，但是要听取其中的事实，做你认为正确的事。”
　　在很多重要的时刻，我都想起爸爸的忠告，这是我在生命中所拥有的最好的忠告。
　　
　　(尹小红 编译)