What do people see when they look in the mirror? I see the big picture of myself rather than the individual attributes. But, What do people see when they look at me? This question came up recently during the election. A colleague of mine went to vote and noticed that when she walked up to the voting station the republican leaflet person looked her square in the eyes , looked her over and then turned towards another perspective voter. The democratic leaflet person came right up to her with a smile and handed her a pamphlet. This colleague of mine voted and as she exited the voting station democratic leaflet person gleefully thanked my colleague for voting while the republican stepped aside without a word. As my colleague sat in her car she looked in her review mirror and asked "what did these people see in her"? Why did the republican assume that she didn't want to review the republican information prior to voting? Why did the democrat assume that she was going to vote democrat and was thankful that she did her civic duty?
What do we see when we look at other people? What are our perceptions of others based upon? My colleague is a person of color and felt that her race determined what these two leaflet people assumed about her. The both happened to be white and probably assumed that as a person of color she was a liberal democrat. But was she??? How many of us assume things based on what we see and not what we know?
We are so many things and we have to remember that our collective is phenomenal. When we look in the mirror we need to see our present, our past and our potential. We are intelligent, emotional, rational, loving, beautiful, proud, fierce, protective, reliable, supportive and SO MUCH MORE!
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL WHO'S THE..............? Are you?