Saturday Morning Rambles

Life has a funny way of throwing you curve balls.

You go along, assuming everything will continue the way it always does. Until it doesn't. We make assumptions about people and situations. 

A guy kills his wife and himself, and the neighbors are all in shock. 

"I can't believe it. He was a nice, quiet guy."

How many times have you watched a movie and made assumptions, then discovered all your assumptions were wrong? 

We saw a documentary film the other night called The Duke. Spoiler alert: if you're planning on watching it, skip this paragraph. The story is about an older gentleman who is tried in court for stealing a painting from the National Gallery in London. It's a recreation, with actors playing the roles of the defendant and his family. The alleged perpetrator is able to avoid extensive prison time using his charm and the fact that he tried to use the painting as a sort of ransom to help elderly pensioners. Anyhow, they go through the whole thing and it turns out it was the son who stole the painting and the father who covered for him. So many assumptions made.

photo attribution below

And...what's the point of my ramblings this morning?

Just that maybe we all need to be careful about making an "ass" of "u" and "me". You don't really know what's happening with people inside. Just because they don't smile and say "good morning" doesn't mean they think you're an a-hole. Go ahead and give them a "good morning" anyhow and move on. Or if they want to share, just listen. Don't try to solve their problem or give advice unless they ask for it. (I'm guilty on all counts of doing the wrong thing here, by the way. So this is as much a reminder to me as it is to anyone who's reading this.)

I do believe social media has exacerbated the judgy-judgy thing. More and more I'm seeing clickbait with headlines like, "Karen Has a Meltdown in Wal-Mart" and "Did All the Characters in MASH Hate Larry Linville?" (By the way, the answer to this is "no.") 

One more example to illustrate my point. Perhaps you're thinking you know all about me because I've been so candid in my blogs. But just remember, I'm the gatekeeper. You only see what I want you to see. 

Oh look, puppies!

Photo attribution: kitty.green66, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons