We're all the same! (But not really...)

I had to make a trip to Lowes the other night. Nothing major, just had to grab a part for our furnace. Rich was at the church when I dropped Deborah off for DV8, so he made the trip with me to the store so he could tell me the story of his super secret project. This instrument has been quite the build (Misty has a great name for it, but again, it's all secret, so I'm not gonna' share that!), and I was, like the total meanie that I am, laughing at his continued misfortune with this instrument.

Anyway, we went in, eventually found the part I needed, checked out, and were heading back to my minivan. Get to the car, I stick the key in and nothing. It won't turn. I tried again, looking to make sure I didn't accidentally have the key to my husband's car. Nope, it's my key. Tried again, and it wouldn't turn. I walked around to the passenger side and tried. Nothing. I was starting to get freaked out. Why wouldn't my car open???

At which point my dear friend commented, "Are you sure this is your car?"

Yeah.

I turned again, and there, right beside me, was ANOTHER silver Honda Odyssey, only this one belonged to me.

Two lessons.

One: Stop mocking my bff. Because every time (!) it comes back to bite me in the rear. Generally in mere minutes.

Two: Just because something looks the same doesn't mean it IS the same. If I had paid attention at all, I'd have noticed that the van I was trying to break into didn't have a giant dent in the side, the seat wasn't covered by cds and there weren't any liberal bumper stickers on the back.

I've said more than once here that we're more the same than we are different. And I still totally stand by that. It's very easy to focus on our differences and forget about all of our commonalities.

However. It's also easy to look at someone and make a judgment about them without getting to know them. To find out a couple of key features and decide everything they believe based on those things. It can be appearance, a label they use, income level, family size, educational background, whatever. We get a quick overview and immediately pigeon-hole. And when we do that, we can be locked out.

But seriously. I have GOT to stop with the laughing at people thing. Not for them, but for my own self-preservation. Sheesh.