Appearances

There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, -- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.

John Constable

I think John Constable may be right.

My sister and I were just talking the other day of how appearances can be deceiving. My sister told me of her experience the other day when she went to a posh beauty counter to buy her cosmetics. She had been a regular user of that particular brand ever since it was launched. When she arrived at the counter, she was ignored by the sales consultant. The reason? She was local and she wore her old tee and jeans. The sales consultant thought she was just browsing and instead focusing on another customer who had had her hair done , wore too much makeup and generally trying very hard to tell people, "Look at me." The funny thing is, my sister wanted to buy her cosmetic and the other person only wanted samples of the cosmetic. After the other customer left, she really gave that person a piece of her mind.

How many times have we done that? Focusing on appearances instead of what really matters? I was just asking my kids the other day, "How can we really tell if a person really has no money? Can you tell by the way they dress? For all you know, the person sitting in a bus wearing his oldest tee and jeans has a lot more money than the person driving the fancy car." One can never tell these days.

We all have heard the old saying, don't judge a book by its covers. Yet this has seldom been practised. We place too much emphasis on appearances rather than look at what is underneath. Funny, how appearances can be deceiving.