Chapter One

Pretend for a second that you're one of those weird people who reads books.  Could be a stretch, but bear with me for a moment.  Then go a step further and imagine yourself in a library, choosing out the next book you're going to lose yourself in.  Sadly, and I am guilty of this as well, we look at the physical appearance of the book.  We would judge the quality of the writing and the potential for us to enjoy the book based on the length of the book, the size of the font, and most importantly, the general appearance of the cover. For someone like me, packaging is everything, and so if it has an impressive-looking cover I will definitely be drawn to it.  This entire process, of course, is incredibly shallow.

But this is how we judge people, isn't it?  We look at the way they dress, and style their hair.  We observe the people that they hang out with, and how they carry themselves.  We judge their natural God-given beauty.  And when we're finished evaluating their worth, we treat them accordingly.  We could either be their   friend because we 'approve' or we could choose to not interact with them because they aren't good enough. Maybe we'll be jealous and keep our distance, choosing to gossip about them in an attempt to make ourselves feel a bit better.  This obsession with appearances our culture has is something that few people are not imprisoned by.  Like a bird in a cage, we're stuck, with eyes constantly watching and judging.  It's a frustrating thing. We're so busy judging the cover of the book that we forget to open it up and start the first chapter. 

So back to the library. you're still standing surrounded by shelves filled with hundreds of books and no idea which one to choose.  The cover-judging hasn't brought you to any decisions, so what do you do? Well maybe you'll ask the opinion of the person next to you.  They proceed to pour out an entire speech on all the books they've read over the last couple months.  Now this sounds okay, getting a second opinion, but what are you really doing? you're allowing opinions to be formed in your mind before you even read it yourself. How are you ever going to know your own reaction to a writing when you've tainted your attitude towards it?

The same can be said of when we judge people based on the opinions of others.  Gossip rarely holds truth in it, and those people have judged probably using the same judging-the-cover system we were fighting against before!

So the only way that we can get to know the real person who the world has trapped with labels is to be open-minded right from the start.  Erase all labels, get past the cover, and open to the first page.  Chapter one awaits!! You never know what work of art you may discover.