WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? The guy was wearing a nice white shirt, a blue blazer, nice black shoes, black socks, and shorts… When I first saw him on the city bus, I did a double take. In fact, I did a triple take. In my head, my first question was, “What’s wrong with this picture?” Then the next question was, “What was he thinking?” We see things like this all the time. Well, maybe not exactly like this, but things that make us wonder. As soon as we see someone who is different from us, or view a scene that is different from our own values or experiences, we assume there is something wrong. Why is that? Why is it that we are so tied to our own values that we cannot accept those that are different from our own? We can never know everything about someone else in a snapshot, but we judge based on that snapshot, don’t we? We all make assumptions about people based on external evidence, but at least we can think a little deeper, and for longer than the second it takes for us to make a judgment. We never know for sure without asking questions of the other person, but at lest we can ask more of ourselves… Were his pants just pressed, and he is meeting them at the laundry? Could his pants maybe be at work already?... I got off the bus before he did, and I did not ask him, so I will never know for sure, but he at least gets the benefit of the doubt. So instead of phrasing the question as, “What’s wrong with this picture?,” maybe it should be, “What’s going on in this picture?” Of course, it’s true that some people are just weird. It’s a fine line, and I am the first to admit that I sometimes dance on it. However, whenever we can give others the benefit of the doubt, and think about it for more than a second, we can call it a victory.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:36:57 +0000
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