When Appearances Lie

Have you ever given any thought as to how the outward appearances of "things" affect your opinion and thinking about that particular thing? One example that comes quickly to mind might be found in the way children determine whether or not they like a food. If it doesn't look "right" to them they will haven't nothing to do with tasting or sampling the item. I think that might fall into the category of judgments or would it???? I have had students tell me that the food was just NASTY when they didn't like the way it looked. Left me always wondering about the meaning of nasty in their minds.

My thoughts were running along in a completely different direction. I was thinking more about how we as individuals quickly form opinions of people based on their outward appearance. Without consideration of the fact that many people can not control the way they look we make judgments at times. Depending on the age of individuals they may look totally different to us at different stages in their lives. I sometimes happen upon students that I have taught during my career and I do not know who they are because I have not seen them since they were ten or eleven years old and the person is now thirty. My what changes can take place during that time period.

Then again diseases and mental conditions can alter the way people appear physically but not change much in the way they regard themselves because we can not always see what others see when they look at us. In other words, we cannot see ourselves through another's eyes.
How often have you seen an individual, formed an opinion and later learned to know the individual to be a totally different person from your pre-judgment???

The issue that I was pondering that brought all of this to my mind was simply how we are all trapped in a physical body that may not depict who we are as individuals. And further that some of us ( in this earthly life) become trapped in a body that doesn't function properly and does not serve us well.
We should strive each day to be exceptionally kind to one another because of things we do know but more often than not for that which we do not know. And more importantly we need to be kind and patient with ourselves.