Don’t judge a book by its cover

When I was younger

When I was younger (probably about seven years old):

I lived in a pretty small country town.

One day my father took me to the only local restaurant we had to get some breakfast, “which was a very rare occurrence”, as we didn’t have much money.

When we were pulling up to the parking lot, I saw a man that was probably close to 70 years old, getting out of a truck and heading inside. "The truck was old and extremely rusty, and the gentleman was only wearing a pair of cowboy boots and overalls that were very worn out".

While we were waiting to order, he was standing in front of us getting ready to pay for his food.

Now, even though we were poor ourselves, my heart always went out to other people who happened to be poor (even though there were times that I had to wear hand me downs and get free lucnch at school, my perception of being poor back then was relative, because I only knew what it was like to be poor in the US. I have since learned that compared to some other countries, we would probably have been considered middle class or even wealthy… not to go off subject).

So, since I had a heart for other people that I thought was poor, I expressed what I was feeling to my father.

I didn’t know it, but my dad must have known about the man. He told me to just wait and watch when he pays his bill. Just then, the man reached into the singular middle pocket in the front of his overalls and pulled out a wad of one-hundred-dollar bills.

Looking back, It must have been at least five thousand dollars! Now, at that time and in the town where I lived, that was considered to be a lot of money.

Fast forward to being older

Fast forward to being older (almost forty-eight):

About a week ago, I went to a waffle house to have breakfast.

While I was sitting at the bar, waiting for my breakfast, a man came in and sat next to me.

"He was in his early forties, clean cut and nicely dressed".

We said hi to each other and struck up a conversation while we were eating. He said that he had just worked 13 days in a row pouring concrete.

Also, as we were talking, Vincent told me had just gotten divorced.

Another thing he said, was that he walked everywhere and that he had walked there. So, I offered him a ride home.

It was then that Vincent hit me with news that he was recently homeless and didn’t have a home to go to. Had he not told me, “from his appearance”, I never would have guessed it in a million years.

He said it was because of the divorce. I offered to help him and give him a ride anywhere he needed to go.

He declined my offer at first, but then before we left, he took me up on it. He asked me to drive him to a friend’s house.

He offered me some gas money, but there was no way that I was going to take it. Vincent was hoping his friend would have some extra work for him.

When we got to his friend’s house, the gentelman said they were about to go do some work and that Vincent could come with them.

In conclusion:

Don’t judge a book by its cover! I think most of us are wired to judge people on what we first see.

However, if we take a step back and at least listen to some of their story, we just might find that everything is not what it seems.

We never know where someone's at in their life or what they might be going through just by looking at them. Like the saying goes, “looks can be deceiving”.

I know this post isn’t really that pertinent to the things people are on this platform for. So, I guess it’s just food for thought.

I’ll try to keep the rest of my posts to things more relevant to what everyone is trying to accomplish here. (websites, online businesses, affiliate marketing… etc.)

Many Blessings :)

Zach

Anyone can leave their thoughts or comments if they wish. Don’t worry, if you decide not to because you need to spend most of your time learning or working, I totally understand, you won’t hurt my feelings… Too Much… just kidding… lol.