This was a comment made to me recently in the Disabled Parking Bays of the local supermarket.
I had parked up and was walking to the shop when I noticed an elderly gentleman up at the windscreen of the car beside me. Well, I say car, what I really mean is one of those HUGE 4x4 beasts that are popping up more and more these days. Anyway, that's beside the point. The young lady who was driving had gone back to the trolley bay with her young son. The gentleman in question was eyeing up her blue parking badge. I looked at him and started to laugh and he said, "Makes you wonder doesn't it?" I replied, "No, not really. It only makes me think that people shouldn't judge a book by it's cover!" His face was a picture I can tell you!
The reason I get so annoyed by people like him is that I have had a parking badge for a few years now. I am young(ish), well I like to think I am, I am 45 going on 25, I don't walk with a limp, have walking sticks or am in a wheelchair. But, I do have chronic asthma which leaves me extremely breathless very often. I suffer from M.E., I have a condition which sees the cerebro-spinal fluid build up around my brain which leaves me with very severe headaches, nausea, dizziness etc as well as other medical conditions, not least cancer. There are people out there with heart conditions and other illnesses which means that they cannot walk far without being out of breath. Yet almost everyone thinks that the Parking Badge is given solely to people who have obvious walking problems.
It was pointed out to me one time that I had parked in a Disabled Bay and I replied, yes I know I can read thank you and the retort was, albeit jokingly, well you'd better walk with a limp then! This attitude really annoys me.
Not long ago I attended a course at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital for my M.E. On this course we were asked to consider a story entitled 'The Truth'. The question we were asked to consider was: How would you feel if you had trained for months and months to run a race and, on the day had the finishing line in view with you in first place when suddenly the man beside you collapsed and you fell over him? The obvious answer from everyone was they would be really angry as this person had robbed of them of their chance of glory. Then we were asked: Well, how would you feel if you discovered that the man had had a heart attack and died? Of course, everyone's attitude changed to sorrow for the person who had died and the anger disappeared. Next we were asked: Well, how would you feel if you found out that this person had been taking performance enhancing drugs which caused the heart attack? Once again, the response was anger towards the person. We were then asked: How would you feel if you were informed that the reason the person had taken the drugs in order to win the race for the sake of his family who were living in a dicatatorship and had all been jailed and he could buy them out of that jail? Yet again the opinions of everyone changed to sympathy for the man.
So, what is the truth? We all believe that what we see with our own eyes is the 'truth', but perhaps people should take a step back sometimes and not judge what they perceive as the 'truth' as things may not always be what they seem.
I do try to stop and think about what circumstances might be making someone act they way they do etc. Not always easy as we are, after all, only human, but I really do wish people would stop being so judgemental of the things they see.
Ok peeps, preaching over for today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring???? lol.
Hope everyone has as lovely a day as is possible and the sun manages to shine wherever you are.
Christine xx
