Responsibility

 

From It's a Lot Like Dancing, by Terry Dobson:

"I once saw an incident on a little mountain spur railway that wound
deep through the Japanese Alps, passing little hamlets of houses
clinging to cliffs.

"It was Saturday morning. People got on and off the train. There were
old people going to market, farmers with their chickens and pigs, and a
lot of college kids on a mountain-climbing vacation. The sun was
streaming in through the window. Everybody was happy.

"The college kids had their gear stuffed up in the baggage rack,
mostly rucksacks with ice axes tied to them. They were singing German
mountain-climbing songs with Japanese accents, which I found greatly
amusing. Across from me was this beautiful old bald man dozing in the
warm sun. When the train stopped, most of the kids got up to get off.

"One of them was next to me, he yanked his rucksack off the rack and the
ice axe fell like a guillotine right into the beautiful old man's bald
head.

"I froze. The axe clattered to the floor. The old man woke up and
clutched his head. Blood started squirting from the wound. He looked up
at the kid, who was absolutely aghast. The old man saw that the boy had
no idea what to do. He reached down, grabbed the ice axe, and handed it
to the kid with a bow. He said, 'Have a good day. Enjoy your climb.' How
is that for deep humility!

"I hope that when I get to be that age and have an ice axe in my
head, I'll remember to bow."