On my way home just now, I had an interesting experience.
I was coming home from picking up a rental car.
I have to drive several hundred miles tomorrow to take my daughter to a medical appointment, and my car, as much as I love it, simply isn't reliable enough to count on for something like this.
On my way home, I had to stop and buy ink for my printer, so I can print out the forms to pay my taxes. Meaning I had to do it today, since there is a deadline beyond my control.
When I got out of my car, a woman from across the parking lot came rushing over to me, with some story about how she hoped I could help her, she needed to get home (to a town about 20 miles away) and she was stuck there, in that parking lot, short $11.
I KNOW she saw me get out of that nice, new car, and assumed I had money.
However, today, of all days, when I'm facing a tax bill that has me pretty near broke, with bills to pay, right when I was having to spend some of what little money I have on something other than food, was NOT the time to ask me for money!
It's not my car. That car does not represent my life.
She should have looked a bit closer, at my muddy, holey boots, and the ragged flannel shirt I was wearing.
As things often do, it got me thinking.
I wonder how often I make the mistake of making an assumption about someone, based on their appearance? I'm sure it happens, no matter how hard I try not to let it.
I also wonder about the world in general, where, so often, people VALUE appearances more than substance, or at least , so it seems.
The appearance of some sort of diploma or certificate is often valued far more than the knowledge it is SUPPOSED to represent.
Quiet, "well behaved" children are valued by many, without wanting to look at what is underneath that compliance. Is it maturity… or fear?
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