On Perception and Perpetrators

The Cookie Thief

by Valerie Cox

A woman was waiting at the airport one night,

with several long hours before her flight.

She hunted for a book in the airport shop,

bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see

that the man beside her, as bold as could be,

grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,

which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,

as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.

She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,

thinking, "If I weren't so nice, I'd blacken his eye!"

With each cookie she took, he took one too.

When only one was left, she wondered what he'd do.

With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,

he took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, and he ate the other.

She snatched it from him and thought...Oooh brother.

This guy has some nerve, and he's also so rude.

Why, he didn't even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled

and sighed with relief when her flight was called.

She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate,

refusing to look at the thieving ingrate.

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,

then sought her book, which was almost complete.

As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise.

There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes!

"If mine are here," she moaned with despair.

"Then the others were his, and he tried to share!"

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,

that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

This cute but astute poem makes me chuckle and gives me pause. How many times have I been absolutely certain that I understood the dynamics of a situation, only to realize that what I believed to be truth was merely a product of my own skewed perceptions? The answer, I'm sure, is too many times! We would all do well to avoid jumping to conclusions, refuse to make snap judgments about people, and get acquainted with our own faults before we project them on others.

Things are not always as they appear, and we are free to choose our responses to whatever comes our way. We can have a good-natured sense of humor about life and those who live it alongside us (like the supposed cookie thief) or we can be ill-tempered and quick to take offense (like the actual cookie thief).

Our court system holds an accused person innocent until proven guilty, and there are good reasons for that. Any court official would testify that the initial perceptions of even the most well-intentioned people can be faulty, and reason suggests that the perceptions of an irritated person will be even more faulty, as will any snap judgments he or she chooses to make. What's more, our observations and interpretations are unfailingly colored by our own shortcomings, whatever those may be.

The takeaway, for me, is this: It's never a bad idea to hear others out before painting them with the brush of deceit or other wrong-doing. Figurative paint sticks every bit as well as literal paint does (maybe better), and the painter who applies it too hastily is left with dirty hands.

{let's keep it clean out there}