bliss
"You know, people from your country smile." The words leaped over the bar at me from this and tempted me to respond. Who says that? I just gave her a fake smile and continued making the drinks for the large order that I was working on.
This insightful comment came after she asked where I was from, to which I told her I was born in Florida and have lived in this city for 17 years. My country? She actually had the nerve to tell one of the other bartenders that I was rude.
That was two nights ago. Tonight, this guy looked at my name tag and said, "That's an unusual name for a guy." Again, I bit my tongue and said "I guess so."
Am I surprised? I guess I shouldn't be, since I swim through the depths of our collective ignorance on a daily basis at the bar. Has this lady been to the country of my ancestry? If so, has she met everyone in that country? Do they all smile, all of the time? Do the people of her country smile all the time? Is that guy an expert on names? Or are they just people who don't know any better?
It's human nature to judge, classify and categorize everything, all of the time. The trick is to realize when you're doing it unconsciously and stop for a moment. When was the last time you just accepted something or someone, completely and without judgment or an attempt to comprehend? It's rare, if ever. We are hard-wired to judge everything and to do so we must draw from our past experiences. Most of us haven't seen anything completely and truly new in a long time.
That's what Kai is experiencing right now. There is so much that is truly new to him, that his sense of amazement and acceptance is at its zenith. When you stop trying to figure something out and you just let it be, that's the magic of life.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
This insightful comment came after she asked where I was from, to which I told her I was born in Florida and have lived in this city for 17 years. My country? She actually had the nerve to tell one of the other bartenders that I was rude.
That was two nights ago. Tonight, this guy looked at my name tag and said, "That's an unusual name for a guy." Again, I bit my tongue and said "I guess so."
Am I surprised? I guess I shouldn't be, since I swim through the depths of our collective ignorance on a daily basis at the bar. Has this lady been to the country of my ancestry? If so, has she met everyone in that country? Do they all smile, all of the time? Do the people of her country smile all the time? Is that guy an expert on names? Or are they just people who don't know any better?
It's human nature to judge, classify and categorize everything, all of the time. The trick is to realize when you're doing it unconsciously and stop for a moment. When was the last time you just accepted something or someone, completely and without judgment or an attempt to comprehend? It's rare, if ever. We are hard-wired to judge everything and to do so we must draw from our past experiences. Most of us haven't seen anything completely and truly new in a long time.
That's what Kai is experiencing right now. There is so much that is truly new to him, that his sense of amazement and acceptance is at its zenith. When you stop trying to figure something out and you just let it be, that's the magic of life.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
posted by wine daddy at
1:39 AM
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