Григорий Горин ХОРОШЕЕ ВОСПИТАНИЕ "Хорошее воспитание не в...

Grigory Gorin
GOOD EDUCATION

“A good upbringing is not that you do not spill sauce on a tablecloth, but that you will not notice if someone else does it ...” So Chekhov said. In the eighth volume of the collected works. Surprisingly wise remark, by the way. When I read it, I was even amazed: how did it not occur to me myself? We consider ourselves intelligent people, but God forbid someone shed sauce at the table, so just the noise, screams ... And Chekhov is struggling with this. He says bluntly: a good upbringing is not in the fact that, therefore, it’s not to spoil yourself, but quite the opposite ...

When I read it, I immediately decided that I would live according to Chekhov. And then just the case turned up - the birthday of his wife. Guests came - relatives, colleagues. We sit, we eat, we carry on intelligent conversations about the weather, about the sheepskin coat, about Yevtushenko, about that, about this ... We sit well, peacefully, no one spills the sauce.

But then one of the guests, someone Kulikov, reached for a bottle and a glass of beer with a beer on the tablecloth and knocked over. He was embarrassed, he quickly began to wipe the stain with a napkin.

I sit - zero attention. Just absolutely not reacting. That is, I sit with the look that he did not spill anything. As if this was not.

But here I notice that no one notices that I do not notice how he filled the tablecloth. I somehow felt hurt.

And I say:
- A good upbringing, I say, is not that you will not spill the sauce on the tablecloth, but that you will not notice if someone else does it ...

Guest Kulikov blushed and said:
- I have not spilled any sauce!

I say:
- What does the sauce? It's not about the sauce ... It's just nice that well-educated people have gathered here. Here you have spilled beer, and no one even blinked. And it is very joyful, especially as the tablecloth is new, recently purchased.

For some reason, guest Kulikov was even more embarrassed, began to mumble something and suddenly dropped the plate on the floor. Plate - shattered! Guest Kulikov became red as a cancer. All are silent. And I try not to notice this new embarrassment, although nothing is said about Chekhov's plate.

I say:
- Do not hesitate, please! What nonsense! No one saw anything. God bless her, with a plate! She - from the service! Antique. Saxon porcelain!

Guest Kulikov somehow shook all over, rushed to pick up the fragments and from the excitement hooked the tablecloth. Bottles and glasses fell down on the floor ... I bit my lip, but I’m trying to show by my appearance that I don’t notice anything. I, on the contrary, even began to whistle something funny to show everyone how indifferent it all is to me. And here, imagine, wife Kulikova jumps up and shouts to me:

- What are you blaming my husband?

I politely answer her:
- None of your husband does not hurt! On the contrary, we try not to notice his rudeness. For example, you, with your fork, climbed into a common salad, but I did not even notice.

Then she began to cry for something, and for some reason all the guests began to resent. A relative of his wife jumped up, shouting:

- Let's get out of here! We are being bullied here!

I say:
- But who is mocking you? They came, you know, the floor was filthy, the ashes were strewing on the plates, drinking immoderately ... I try not to pay attention, and you blather on something else!

Then the guests jumped up, rushed to the front of the coat. I shouted after them:

- Well, okay! Get out of here! Fair wind!

This, of course, I already rudely shouted. Do not need this! I would like to send something from Chekhov to them, something about sauce or something like that, but somehow I didn’t find any quotations. Thank God, I didn’t launch a bottle, I restrained myself ...