Perception.

Have you ever pondered how often you have been the victim of false perception? Have you ever wondered how many times you thought ill of someone without just cause?

Perception is such a tricky device. We wouldn’t know anything without it, but sometimes I think we barely know anything with it because it can easily be turned and tossed about like a junk on the open seas. A wave may hit us on our blindside giving us a certain perception about the given circumstance. But how often are we wrong?

I was on my little Honda motorbike yesterday, buzzing through the streets of Penang as I usually do. A couple of days earlier I had some maintenance done on the bike, and I had the mechanic put in a new horn button, since mine no longer worked.

Wow! That new one is touchy. I’m used to resting my left thumb on the button so I can sound it quickly when some yo-ho runs through a red light, which happens all the time.

I was behind this brown car and we were waiting for some traffic to clear up so we could weave ourselves through a busy small street lined with street vendors and small food stalls. I’m sure the car saw me behind him because we sat there for quite some time waiting for a truck to pull through in front of us. I was, however, the picture of patience.

Finally, the queue emptied out, the car pulled forward, and I continued to follow right behind him. Then the car quickly turned off into the gas station on the left when my thumb hit the sensitive horn button.

BEEEEEEP!!!!

‘Great’, I thought. ‘Now that guy totally thinks I’m a jerk.’  I immediately perceived that he believed I was annoyingly honking at him as I went by because I had to wait behind him earlier.

The beep was a total accident that meant absolutely nothing. Perhaps he thought I was just another impatient, annoying foreigner.

What can be done? I would say this.

Let’s think the best of people. When someone beeps at you in an annoying manner, assume that he has a new, touchy horn.

When someone cuts you off, assume that his wife is sick in the back seat and he needs to get to the hospital.

What would happen if the the whole would would be not so quick to judge? I can’t help but think the world would be a better place.

Give everyone the benefit of the doubt.