It is What Lies Within

I was introduced to a woman who was older, very overweight, and not a very good communicator. She looked frumpy and seemed unable to express herself. I have to admit I made assumptions from our first interaction. I was not impressed and didn’t give her a second thought. Then I interacted with her one on one and saw her in action. She is amazing and an expert at what she does. Her ability to juggle multiple things at the same time was phenomenal and beyond compare. I was ashamed of my assumptions.

There is a saying that you should never judge a book by it’s cover; yet we do it all the time. We discount people by what clothes they wear, their hairstyle, their weight, and how they behave. We make assumptions simply by their exterior and our interpretation of their actions.  We area culture that worships youth, physical features, and fashion. We esteem charisma, even if there is no personal integrity to back it up. We judge and make assumptions from a single event and extrapolate our thoughts and they polite the future. We think our assumptions are right and go from there. How wrong we are.

I have to admit that I want to think differently, yet my own shortcomings prevent me from always being fair. I all too often let my own biases and assumptions lead me down the wrong path. The culture in which I was reared shows its ugly face all too often. Then the educated, humanity in my soul reminds me to NOT do what I have been taught to do. I am reminded to think for myself and NEVER make assumptions. I get lazy and fall back into bad habits. Meeting this woman reminded me to recalibrate and think straight. It reminded me that I’m not sure I would want to be measured by the assumptions people make about me on our first meeting.

So I plan to open more books and read before I make any assumptions about the content. I have been fooled too many times by impressive bindings with little or no substance within it’s pages. I am reminded that the cover of a book means nothing, it is what lies within that TRULY tells the story.