Just like you
I had this weird analogy pop into my head in starbucks one day, a number of years ago:
I was sat there, with my family, just having a drink and probably a muffin, when I looked up at the woman who was diagonally opposite us. I took her in in about a second. Blonde, short length hair, slightly overweight, alone, looked completely and utterly normal. Nothing distinguishing by any stretch of the imagination.
I had a strange shift of perspective. What I’d always known but never really understood hit me. This woman was every bit as complex as I was. She had hopes for the future and ambitions. She had regrets about the past and happy memories. She has a hundred and one worries about her current life. She had plans. She had loves, people she wanted to see. She was just as complex as me.
It had never truly hit me before that every single person on the planet is just as intricate and complex as the inside of my own head.
The analogy that popped into my mind was that of a vast plain, with a setting sun. In this vast plain, there are thousands of pools of water. They’re not wide, nor are they adorned. All you can see of these pools are the reflections of the sun. Each pool is a silvery sheen to you and thats all it will ever be to you, normally. The closer you walk to one of these pools though, the more you see. The reflection of the sun is less pronounced and you begin to see the depth. You get to the waters edge, look down, and realise that you cannot see the bottom. It could go on forever. What you hadn’t given two thoughts to, just a silvery sheen, was actually a well that reached down an unfathomable distance. You raise your head, look across the plain and realise that although each pool merely looks like a mirror, each and every one has the same depth and clarity as the one you happened to walk towards.
I don’t really know why I am writing this, but I felt it appropriate and relevant after reading your post (plus I am listening to a super-emotional song and I tend to get all abstract when emotional). If you’ve got this far, thank you for reading :)
I had a moment like this too. I was in ASDA doing my shopping and as I was about to get served I quickly looked at and judged the lady at the checkout, it wasn’t a nice thought but it was in my head and that’s what we do isn’t it? Anyway, she put my shopping through and was kind and helpful about it all. Which ran in the opposite direction to what I initially imagined.
Suddenly I felt ashamed. I suddenly realised, that perhaps I shouldn’t be so hasty in making judgements.
How quickly do we judge people all the time? How much of a chance do we really give them? Should we keep an open mind about them? Just as we would want them to do for us?
June 17, 2011