Written in the evening, Tuesday October 21, 1997...
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It's true. It's natural to come to a decision based upon appearances... anyone who denies this is a mega-fibber. All of us who care, however, try to curb it at a certain point, but making certain kinds of evaluations is necessary...
We see a thuggishly dressed person walking down the street in a threatening demeanor, and we automatically go on guard. There's nothing wrong with that. That's instinct. That's necessary. Like all good moms say... "It's better to be safe than sorry." However, sometimes we're all a little too quick to judge people. For example, we see someone in a wheelchair and automatically think disabled or handicapped. Of course, we never know the degree of the disability until we have a conversation with the person... sometimes we wander upon vegetables, and other times, we find a truly bright individual in that mobile chair... you just never know. That's just one example. There are thousands of others.... just to list a few, when you see an old or young person, homeless guy, or a person judged to be unattractive... Many of us tend to make snap decisions based on those characteristics whether we admit it or not. So we try and change that. We have conversations with that person or observe him or her under varying conditions and then we make our decisions... So on to my little story that forced me to make this observation.... I've mentioned once or twice on here that there was this cool old lady in this apartment complex I'm living in... I've just adored her... she pulls practical jokes on people and tells cute little stories for the other tenants' amusement. She's always up to something... the other day it was draping a pair of kinky panties over a coffee table in the lobby... what a response that got! She's just not your typical old lady, and everyone loves her dearly... She's past 80... really ancient... So I was sitting down in the lobby and talking with one of the older tenants... she came by and was being a bit goofy, and after she left, I looked at the other guy and said, "When I'm that old, I want to be like her. She's just too cool." The old guy looked at me strange and said, "You don't know, do you?" I was beyond perplexed.... "Know what?" He then got in a real quiet voice and said, "She's a HE!!" I'm still recovering over that shock... then I thought about it... this lady always wears turtlenecks and high collars.... and dresses that reach the floor.... and that also explains the funny hair... they're wigs... So the moral of this story... if there really is one... appearances really can be deceiving... You could be living with an 80+ Drag Queen.... |