Book Cover

“Never judge a book by its cover” reminds us that we should never be too quick to conclude about someone/something based just on his/her/its appearance. I have a new interpretation today: this phrase is there to just prevent us from misjudging the 1% of the books. What I am trying to say is that judging a book by its cover is actually 99% of the time accurate.

How someone portrays oneself on the outside is a reflection of one’s inner self. Imagine that I picked out the neatest and sloppiest student from a class based on their handwriting. I would believe that one would be able to point out quickly that which handwriting belongs to who based on just how a student present himself/herself. There are always exceptions of course, that’s why we have ”never judge a book by its cover“.

Well, basically I got a rude shock this afternoon while I was having lunch at McDonald’s. I was left with my drinks only and was just observing people in the restaurant. Then I saw this staff topping up the supplies at the place where you get sugar and serviette. Let’s call him X. X is unique in the way that he looks, dresses and acts. I’m not very good with giving politically correct criticisms and so I’d just say that he is below average in all those areas. (For example, his uniform would be in a off yellow color in contrast to the fresh yellow that other staffs would be wearing.) Being unique, X usually stand out in the crowd. And I would notice that he was usually assigned to do those “unpopular” tasks like clearing the bin, mopping the floor, and wiping the glass doors. Sometimes, I feel sorry for X because I felt that he was being judged and bullied…

Back to observing X topping up the supplies. It happened that X dropped a few saucers on the floor when he was transferring them from the storage area below to the dispensing area on top.  Faced down. So as X was picking those saucers up, I decide to guess how he would handle the saucers. Based on his appearance, I thought that he’d put the saucers in the dispensing area. But a large part of me was hoping that he would not.

He disappointed me… Sigh~

Well, I next went to the manager and told him about my “unfortunate observation”, requested that he “gently reminds” his staff to not repeat the mistake, and made my exit for FYP.

人虽不可貌相，但大多数时候，貌相还是最管用的。