The community garden opened in April with a green gate, twelve raised beds, and a laminated sign listing rules that nobody had voted on. Rule four said children under twelve must be accompanied. Rule seven said no dogs. Rule nine said the gate closes at six. Ravi, eleven, read the sign twice and calculated that he was old enough to dig but not old enough to decide.
社区花园在四月开放，有一扇绿色的门、十二个高架种植床，还有一块塑封的告示，列着一些没人投票通过的规则。第四条说十二岁以下儿童必须有人陪同。第七条说不许带狗。第九条说大门六点关闭。十一岁的拉维把告示读了两遍，算了一下：他大到可以挖土，却小到不能做决定。
His mother rented bed number six for tomatoes. On the first warm Saturday, Ravi arrived at five past six with a watering can and found the gate locked. An elderly neighbor, Mrs. Okafor, was sitting on the bench inside with her small dog, equally locked in. They waited twenty minutes for the caretaker, and by then the tomatoes had wilted and Mrs. Okafor had opinions.
他妈妈租了六号床种西红柿。第一个暖和的星期六，拉维六点零五分提着小水壶赶到，发现门锁了。年长的邻居奥卡福太太坐在里面的长椅上，带着她的小狗，同样被锁在里面。他们等了看守人二十分钟，那时西红柿已经蔫了，而奥卡福太太已经有了意见。
At the next garden meeting, Ravi asked who had written the sign. The answer was a committee of three, all of whom had meant well and none of whom had asked anyone else. He suggested a different method: one afternoon, one table, and a sheet of paper for every rule, so people could write what they actually needed beside it.
下一次花园会议上，拉维问是谁写的告示。答案是三人委员会，他们全都出于好意，却没有问过任何其他人。他提出另一种方法：一个下午，一张桌子，每条规则配一张纸，这样人们可以在旁边写下自己真正需要的东西。
Eleven people came, and eleven people disagreed. The dog owners wanted a morning hour; the parents wanted a safe path; the commuters wanted the gate open later; the caretaker wanted fewer keys. Ravi wrote everything down without defending any of it. When the sheet was full, the group discovered that most complaints were about the same two things: time and trust. The argument had been about rules, but the room had been asking for a schedule everyone could see.
来了十一个人，十一个人意见不同。养狗的人想要一个早晨时段；父母们想要一条安全的通道；通勤者希望门开得晚一点；看守人希望少几把钥匙。拉维把一切都写下来，不为任何一条辩护。纸写满后，大家发现大多数抱怨其实都关于同样两件事：时间和信任。争论一直是关于规则的，但这个房间一直在要求一张所有人都看得见的时间表。
The new sign was longer, but it had a different shape. Instead of “no,” it mostly said “when” and “where.” Dogs were welcome before nine, on a lead, on the gravel path. Children could come alone after their sixth birthday. The gate closed at dusk, and two neighbors kept spare keys. Then Ravi added a final line: “These rules will be read aloud in October and changed if they are wrong.”
新告示更长，但形状不同了。它很少说“禁止”，大多说“何时”和“何地”。九点前欢迎带狗，但要用牵引绳，走碎石路。孩子满六岁可以独自来。大门黄昏关闭，两位邻居各留一把备用钥匙。然后拉维加上了最后一行：“这些规则将在十月当众宣读，如有错误就修改。”
Mrs. Okafor read that line and laughed. “A rule that admits it might be wrong,” she said. “Whoever heard of such a thing?” But she came in October, and so did the caretaker and the commuters and the parents, and they changed three rules in an hour without anyone resigning from the garden. Ravi’s tomatoes, which had survived the summer, were finally harvested by a child who had never met the committee of three.
奥卡福太太读到那行，笑了。“一条承认自己可能错的规则，”她说，“谁听说过这种事？”但她在十月来了，看守人、通勤者和父母们也来了，他们在一小时内改了三条规定，没有人从花园辞职。拉维的西红柿活过了夏天，最后被一个从未见过那个三人委员会的孩子摘走了。