Faulty First Impressions    

   We all do it. How could we not?  

   There's a first impression for everything and everyone, and that can be okay...or not.

   Tuesday I was about to park outside the barbershop. Another car occupied two spaces, at an angle of 20 degrees or more. 

   An elderly woman was walking around the car, I assumed, 
checking her position. She moved toward the driver's door, 
again I assumed, to straighten out her vehicle.

   I parked in the next space and entered the shop.

   There's my first impression: "a little old lady" who didn't park straight, but she was going to make it right.

   Wrong. She followed me into the shop.

   Her husband was getting a haircut from a female barber. The other barber also had a customer, so I sat down to wait my turn, perusing the newspaper. 

   The male barber normally talks non-stop. He is informed on many subjects. But Tuesday he was silent. 

   Then I became aware that the lady, her husband and his barber were discussing a difficult subject. The lady of this story has cancer, apparently without prospect of a cure.

   Now, her parking skills were no longer important. 

       Jimmy

PS. We've been thinking lately about how often we evaluate people based on just one fact - age, or looks, race, gender, clothing, politics, religion, etc. One fact may be overriding, but one fact can get someone wrongly jailed or even killed. Maybe five or ten facts about a person would be a good beginning. What was it that Jesus said about the plank in our own eyes?