Perception Problem

Toasty,  Tasty, or Terrible

Perception is a funny thing, isn't it?  What's one person's trash is another person's treasure as they say.   Perception can taint how we feel about all kinds of things.  We develop how we view the world widely by experiences.  But those experiences are so personal that they cannot possible be true across the board.  

Case in point:  My son had three friends over.  They decided to use the toaster for some English muffins.  One friend thought toast sounded better.  His method of toasting was a variation on the usual.  He would put the bread in the slot, set the time once, remove the bread after the timer was up, flip the bread and put it back in the slot, then set the timer once more.  This was his tried-and-true method of "perfect" toast.  My toaster is a current version that toasts on both sides simultaneously.  Never have I needed to flip anything to ensure that both sides got the same, equal treatment.  In fact, my toaster even has a bagel setting which toasts only the inside, exposed part of the bagel.  That's a particular setting for one kind of method and it's not widely used.  I'd say we use the traditional setting much more often.  Yet, never have I used the flip method.  

The friend's toasting concept came from a family member that has always done it this way and passed down her knowledge to the subsequent generations.  This idea had been used with success for generations now.  His knowledge and view on this method had come from personal experience.  

The three friends didn't agree so much with the method nor the outcome.  When polled, three out of four agreed the toast was burnt.  One person cited he had to use his back teeth just to bite through the blackened crust.  Others looked at it and assumed it wouldn't taste good so they wouldn't even try it.  The culinary concoction ended up being shunned most likely out of the perception that the technique wasn't widely used and, therefore, the result would not be the conventional result -- it wouldn't taste good. I took a poll of those involved, me included.  Two of us found it appetizing while three did not.  Majority ruled, the toast was a thumbs down.  Now when I look at this picture (which is the actual toast in question), and I see a delicious looking, quite edible piece of toast.  I think I could have convinced everyone to try it and, I will even venture to guess, they may have liked it.  Persuasion can be a powerful thing.  The toast was eaten by it's maker, so I didn't get to try to convert the opposition.

So it goes with situations and people, too.  By pure notion, we can miss out on so much because we rule it out before we have evidence to backup our feelings or have anecdotal affirmation.  We can declare some toasty (tolerable), tasty (exemplary or satisfactory), or terrible (objectionable or undesirable).  Have you ever deemed something unworthy, not to your liking, invaluable or waste of your time?  Did you decide that because of your own experience, or did you let the influence of someone or something else help make the decision?  Did you ever use intuition because you had a sense about a person or situation?  Did you ever change your mind from your initial judgement?

Let me encourage you to not judge before you have involvement.  Don't miss out on a new person or event because of your past (in)experience.  You might have just stumbled upon something wonderful that will change your perception -- for the better!  Keep working toward the goal of being Beyond Blesssed!