To Kill A Misconception

4th December

No one is what or who they appear- don’t judge a book by its cover, as the saying goes.
Or in the words of Harper lee;
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
(N.b. for the politically correct among us read, he or she)

We all have reasons for being us- different experiences that formed us, our character- who we are.
The good thing is; if you happen to be a total rotter- you can change!
To illustrate this incongruity of appearance, my good friends- Paul and Charlotte, have Mitsy – the family dog.

Mitsy is a Shih Tzu and like her pet name, is of loveable and cuddly appearance. Indeed she gives one the feeling of being loved, as she stretches her small and fluffy frame against the shins, whenever a guest appears at the door; smiling goldfish eyes and swooshing tail.

Their daughter Maisie proudly told me a joke when they first got her;
“I went to the zoo the other day- it only had one animal- it was a Shih Tzu,” delighting in the rude, but ingenious play on words.

No one knew however, that beneath this loveable exterior, beat the heart of a lion. In fact, the breed; of Tibetan/Chinese origin, is known in their ancestral home as, ‘the lion dog.’

A recent incident betrayed her previously hidden ferocity. Paul followed the trail of bloody footsteps, across the patio and onto the garden. Crouched, vampire-like, over a dead pigeon was Mitsy. Her coat, once cream in colour, was now bathed in gore. Chest, forelegs and moustache, soaked with the poor creature’s blood.
According to eye witnesses, she glanced over her shoulder as if in a state of trance, guarding her prize- then continued to devour the lot, crunching on bone and choking on feather until the corpse was gone.

No one knew how she caught the thing- We all marvelled, and left it to our own imagination.

Unfortunately, it was revealed a couple of days later; although Mitsy had the heart of a lion-she did not have a stomach to match.

The point of all this; is that we should not be quick to judge others. And that once you take the trouble to speak to someone, you might just find they are not the person you think. Just give ’em a chance!

During my now frequent visits to hospital, and in my haste to put the horrid place behind me; my exit always seems to be blocked by a careless or maniacal driver.
Tempted to wave a fist- as is my wont for impatience, Michelle always reminds me;
“I always think they might have had terrible news, or be worried about a loved one.”
She’s right of course; and I redden with guilt at my insensitive selfishness.

To finish with another great quote from ‘To kill a Mockingbird,’ which is littered with them;

“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Let us not be like that man!
(N.b. for the politically correct among us; read man or woman)