Perception...greater than reality

My foray into the world of blogging with something that is omnipresent in our daily life – perception.

The dictionary defines the word as the act of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind…… an immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, insight, discernment (The act or process of exhibiting keen insight and good judgment…..Keenness of insight and judgment).

Apprehension …intuition…judgement….happens to us ALL the time. As I write this, I remember a good friend who said “perception is greater than reality”…so very true. The last few years have taught me that. What we think or make out of people, situations or circumstances is far more exaggerated than the real person, situation or circumstance.

I have perceived and have also been perceived. My closest friends (initially) ‘thought’ I ‘looked’ haughty and unapproachable ….and eventually found me to be quite casual and friendly to get along with. Personally, I would like to believe the latter, as I am someone who craves for friends and have a great circle of friends.

I also fell into the trap of judging a book by its cover. This simple incident happened to me early this month. I was traveling by train with my hubby and under 2 year’s son. I was doing night travel and did not get the desired lower berth. Basically, I prefer the lower berth coz I put my son besides me to sleep and the lower berth minimizes the chance of him falling down or rolling off the berth. An elderly (but healthy and trim) couple was our co-passenger. I ‘thought’ the uncle ‘looked’ very unfriendly for me to even think of requesting him to exchange berths. As we were contemplating our next step, the elderly uncle of the couple voluntarily offered to exchange his lower berth with my middle berth. He said that he could see the hesitation on my face to ask him. Having an older grandson himself, he apparently faced a similar problem while traveling with little fellow. Since I had an even younger child, he told me understood the difficulty. Shocked (first) and relieved (next), I managed a weak but genuine ‘thank you’ to him. So much so for his ‘unfriendliness’?!!. Being a regular train traveler and having experienced insensitive behaviour from others, this simple yet touching gesture by the uncle made a lasting impact on me. It once again reiterated that what we think or make out of people may be entirely different from what they actually are.

To all my wonderful friends who love me and to the elderly uncle on the train whom I may never meet… thank you for making me appreciate the real thing!