Think about how many times you have heard the expression, "Don't judge a book by its cover." This was used in conversation between my husband and I several times this past weekend. As a writer, when I see and hear things, anything is fair game for me to write about. I knew that this would be my blog for Monday.
As usual, I like to do a bit of my writing outline and then research, sometimes just to see if anything else interesting is out there in cyber space concerning my topic. And so it was....at least to me. Did you know that Bo Diddley recorded a song called, "You Can't Judge a Book By The Cover?" Well, I can tell you this much... my musical trivia husband probably did. And if you did too... good for you. I did not. However, I looked it up to hear it and see the words. He sings that: You can't judge an apple by looking at the tree, You can't judge the honey by looking at the bee, You can't judge a daughter by looking at the mother and You can't judge a book by looking at the cover. If you need to hear more, you can Google it and play it. That was pretty much enough for me to get the idea.
Although, when I looked up the release date, I found out that it was 1962 and that reminded me of the musical that Steve and I saw this past weekend, Memphis. It was at a local Community Playhouse, and I must say that it was a marvelous production. We had the Broadway production to compare it to. The directing, actoring, singing and dancing right here in Memphis were comparable to the Broadway production. Several of the actors did a fine job acting and dancing, however, based on what I perceived, I did not hold out high hopes of their singing voices compared to the others that I had heard at this point. To my discredit for making a judgmental call, they blew me away. One could hardly believe that they could hit those notes that they hit. WOW!
This takes me back to giving myself a talking to about judging others when I do not have facts. It is not fair to judge based on looking at someone. In searching for this in the dictionary, I was able to find that this English idiom is a metaphorical phrase which simply means you shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something by its outward appearance alone.
That sums up totally what I believe in, yet there I was doing exactly that. Shame on me! I hope that this mistake will stick with me so that I do not continue to make snap judgment calls. Usually, that is so not me. Obviously, I have a way to go. Down deep, I am fairly certain that we all have this to work on to some degree or another.
Then on the very same day on Facebook, a person wrote on my husband's page that all along she had considered that he was "just a boring 'dude.'" He had been challenged to put up a 70's song, one a day, for seven days that meant something to him and tell why. He was at this point on his sixth day and song and she had never ever before written on his page, however, she now wrote that he was "so freaking cool and all this time she just thought he was a boring dude." What was she doing? She was looking at a book and judging by its cover.
For those who know him, the words boring, dull, quiet, are words that are 180 degrees from who he is. Of course, in a large work place, it is usually a quick hello/goodbye to most people you pass, except for immediate pod-mates or those working on a project together. It would be beneficial if we all could be less judgmental of one another because we do not walk in the other person's shoes and there could be some interesting adventures that could be shared.
If we all can remember this reference from Bob Marley, it may help us to not judge a book by its cover: "Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect - and I don't live to be - but before you start pointing fingers...make sure your hands are clean!" You never know what you may find out without making judgmental calls simply by looking at "the book" without reading some first.
So I started this blog and ended on musical references as Bo is singing on my IPhone right now. Next up? A little reggae!
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