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I was running late. My wife Eleanor and I had agreed to meet at the restaurant at seven o'clock and it was already half past. I had a good excuse in the form of a client meeting that ran over and I wasted no time getting to the dinner as fast as possible. 迟到了。我跟老婆埃莉诺约好7点在饭店见面来着，现在已经7点半了。我的理由还算充分：因为跟某个客户有约，所以只能先忙完再马不停蹄赶来一起吃晚饭。 When I arrived at the restaurant, I apologized and told her I didn't mean to be late. 赶到饭店后，我急忙跟老婆道歉：我不是故意要迟到的。 She answered: "You never mean to be late." Uh oh, she was mad. 她回道：“你什么时候故意迟到过？”呃，看来老婆生气了。 "Sorry," I retorted, "but it was unavoidable." I told her about the client meeting. Not only did my explanations not soothe her, they seemed to make things worse. That started to make me angry. “对不起，”我说，“但事情真的推不开。”接下来就是我要跟客户见面如何如何……可是，我越解释越是火上浇油，最后连我自己也气得不行。 That dinner didn't turn out to be our best. 自然，那顿晚饭也吃得不开心。 Several weeks later, when I was describing the situation to a friend of mine, Ken Hardy, a professor of family therapy, he smiled. 几个星期后，我把这件事告诉了朋友肯-哈迪。肯是家庭治疗方面的专家。听完我的诉说，他笑了。 | 
