This, dear readers, is a Shoebill. It’s a stork-like bird that lives in East Africa. It can get up to almost 5 feet tall. Now I don’t know about you, but if I ran into one of these suckers in a dark alley, I’d soil myself. They look angry and aggressive. They look like they could really f*** you up. Look at those vicious little eyes and that massive, dangerous looking bill!
Actually, unless you’re a fish on its menu, in which case you’re likely to be decapitated in its powerful jaws, this bird is actually quite tame, and will often fly off and abandon its nest if you try to approach. The vast majority of the Shoebill’s time is spent in a zen-like silent and motionless state.
You can’t judge a book by its cover. That’s true with people, too.
It is a natural survival mechanism to see things and draw immediate conclusions, but sometimes it means you’re missing out on opportunities to know some pretty amazing people.
The sweet, generous, and amazing man who bought me this laptop has a two foot long beard. I’m sure that because of that a lot of people make assumptions about him and think they won’t be able to relate to him at all. That’s a shame.
I know someone else who had to have brain surgery decades ago, and because of that half his face sags and he slurs his words when he’s particularly tired. A lot of people actually assume he’s retarded when in fact his IQ is quite high. Babies look at him and cry because he cannot smile. It must be exhausting having to get past the assumptions of every single person you meet before you can have an intelligent conversation.
By all means, trust your survival instinct when you find yourself in a questionable situation. When alone in a parking garage, profile with impunity is my philosophy. But next time you’re in a café, for example, maybe try to allow yourself a few extra minutes to delve deeper into the people that you meet. You never know what treasures you may unearth.
There are a lot of figurative Shoebills in this world. Each one is priceless.
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