As youngsters, we're taught never to judge a book by it's cover. Parents will tell their kids, "How do you know if you like it, if you don't try it first?" Yet adults are the first ones to make a snap judgement. Take me for example. This weekend, I relunctantly went to see an exhibit of modern art. I've never liked modern art, so I thought, but a friend begged me to go. I was shocked by the number of paintings I saw that I really liked! All this time, I'd been making blanket assumptions about the whole genre of modern art, based on my very lmited exposure. The same holds true for books. A human friend of mine has a neighbor who's a pretty well-known sci-fi author. She'd never read any of his books because she thought she didn't like sci-fi. The neighbor gave her a copy of his latest book and asked her to read it and write a review. Once she started reading, she couldn't put it down! It was awesome...well done and believable. So why is it that, even after we discover we like something that we previously "hated," we still continue to categorize and "lump" people into groups...those we like and those we don't like. It's just not right! Every group of people...frogs, too I'm afraid...have good apples and bad apples. You wouldn't say you don't like all frogs just because the one in your backyard sings a little too loudly and keeps you up at night...or would you? We shouldn't make sweeping judgements by saying we don't like a specific race, religious group...or even a species. One person doesn't define the whole lot. Everyone...humans and critters alike...deserves our respect; kind of like being innocent until proven guilty. Don't you want to be treated that way? I know I do...
RSS Feed