We live in such an appearance oriented world! So often we discount someone on account of what they are wearing, a certain behaviour they exhibit or the way they talk. My Uncle told me a story the other day, which looks at this in a rather amusing light.
First, a little about my Uncle. David is very careful with 2 things, money and the environment. To this end, he buys most (possibly all) of his clothing from op shops (not helped by the fact that he calls them "junk shops"), he prides himself on keeping track of "CFD's" which are "car free days" (he's up to 100 this year) and he does his weekly shopping on a three wheeled electric bike. Eccentric? Yes.
David is also a piano tuner. He takes particular pride in his work and despite his "junk shop couture", always attends customers houses dressed neatly in a shirt and tie, looking ever so presentable.
Recently, he was tuning the piano of a local lady who lived not far from him in a reasonable affluent sea-side suburb. They got talking about the local area and she started talking about a character she had seen around the place.
"Oh have you seen that poor old tramp on the three wheeler bike?" she said
"Yes, yes I have as a matter of fact!"David replied
"I imagine he must have lived in the area a long time, because there is no way that someone like that could afford to live here these days. I wonder where it is he lives?"
"Well, perhaps he's not as hard up as you think!" David responded, enjoying the banter,
"Really? Why would you say that?"
"Well, actually, I know him!"
"Goodness me. You know him? Well, what is his story?"
"Well, he's a piano tuner......and he just tuned your piano!"
The woman was dreadfully embarrassed at having called this perfectly respectable chap an 'old tramp'. David was anything but offended, it isn't the first time he's been called a tramp!
Just goes to show that it's worth scratching the surface before pigeon holing someone!
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