A writer named Jim Eason once wrote, "If you want to look young and thin, hang around with old, fat people."
I laughed when I read that line, but I also had an epiphany. We human beings have a bad habit of skewing our perceptions to fit our own needs.
When I go in the pool here in our 55-and-older community, I don't feel out of place with my one-piece bathing suit, gray hair, and plump figure. But, if I go to the ocean and walk the beach looking for shells, in my perception, I suffer in comparison to other beach walkers.
If we're invited to a dinner party and asked to contribute a dish, my initial reaction is always positive. I love cooking and enjoy creating dishes to share. But, my friend's response is always negative. She feels inadequate to the task, thinks she's a below-average cook, and hates presenting a dish to others. Her perception is that she can't compete with the "real" cooks.
Perception can be a funny thing. We look at the world through eyes that have been warped by our experiences. An English poet probably said it best - "All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye." When we have been taught through the years to see a certain way, we have a hard time seeing reality.
When I see a person with many tattoos and/or piercings, I cringe. My old-fashioned perception thinks negatively about those modern methods of body decoration. But, since some of the people I love have adopted those methods of self-expression, I've grown to accept