“Letters about the good and the beautiful” Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote in 1985, shortly before his 80th birthday. In them, an outstanding specialist in ancient Russian literature opens up as a philosopher, a preacher of spiritual values. He writes about memory and conscience, about the ability to argue with dignity and the art of making mistakes. “Letters” are addressed to young people, but the words of a wise and benevolent person will be in tune with the reader of any age.
Letter Eighteen: THE ART OF ERRORS
I don’t like watching TV shows. But there were programs that I always watched: dancing on ice. Then I got tired of them and stopped watching – I stopped systematically, I only watch episodically. Most of all I like it when those who are considered weak or who have not yet entered the ranks of the “recognized” perform well. The luck of the beginners or the luck of the unfortunate is much more satisfying than the luck of the lucky ones.
But it’s not that. What fascinates me the most is how the “skater” (as athletes on the ice were called in the old days) corrects his mistakes during the dance. He fell and gets up, quickly entering the dance again, and leads this dance as if there had never been a fall. This is art, great art.
But after all, there are many more mistakes in life than on an ice field. And you need to be able to get out of mistakes: correct them immediately and … beautifully. Yes, it’s beautiful.
When a person persists in his mistake or worries too much, thinks that life is over, “everything is lost,” this is annoying both for him and for those around him. People around feel embarrassed not from the mistake itself, but from the inability of the person who makes a mistake in correcting it.
Admitting your mistake to yourself (it is not necessary to do it publicly: then it is either embarrassing or panache) is not always easy, experience is needed. Experience is needed so that after a mistake has been made as soon as possible and as easily as possible to get involved in the work, to continue it. And people around do not need to force a person to admit a mistake, they need to be encouraged to correct it; reacting in the same way as spectators react at competitions, sometimes even rewarding the fallen and easily corrected his mistake with joyful applause at the first opportunity.
See more: D. Likhachev “Thoughts about life. Good Letters” (KoLibri, 2013).