incognito

When I travel, I do everything I can to be comfortable. I'm not a big fan of trekking through security (really, who is??), and scurrying through airports between flights, so I always figure I might as well be comfortable doing it: jeans, a t-shirt, and slip-on sandals. Little or no makeup. Collegiate sweatshirt stuffed in my backpack, at the ready to keep me from freezing to death on a cold airplane.

I must not appear anything like what most people expect a scientist to look like, because more often than not, when I end up chatting with fellow travelers, they seem surprised to find out that I "do science" for a living. Maybe they think I'm still in college (or maybe I'm flattering myself!). Maybe it's because I definitely don't make any attempt at looking "professional" when I know my destiny for the day is to be stuck in an aircraft-grade aluminum can at 35,000 feet. Or maybe it's because I don't look like the stereotypical scientist - no highwater pants or pocket protectors here!

It's like going incognito. People have no idea who you are or what you are about - all they have are their perceptions, their ideas of who and what they think you are. Sometimes, they may be right, but most of the time, they're probably not. In a sense, we all go incognito, all the time - because we inevitably encounter people we don't know, and who don't know us - perhaps on a daily basis.

Sometimes, God presents us with great opportunities through this - great opportunities to surprise someone by being a witness to grace and goodness - providing us great opportunities to evangelize, whether in word or deed - or at least, an opportunity to break through someone's misperceptions.

How often have you been surprised to find out that someone was not at all what you had sized them up to be? How did you react when you discovered your misperception? Did it make you think? Did it make you reconsider the way you look at those around you? Or, have you been on the other end of someone's misperceptions?

It's easy to prejudge those around us based on their appearances, or the stereotypes that are, to some extent, programmed into our brains. I know, because not only has it happened to me, but I have also done it many times, myself - and have been reminded that it's something I must be more mindful of.

Often, we don't know who the person next to us is, where they're coming from, or what battles they may be fighting. Regardless of our preconceived ideas, we owe them respect and dignity, as fellow children of God - just as we would want to be treated with respect and dignity, and not subjected to another's preconceived ideas about us.

You never know what impact you might have on their life... or what impact they might have on yours.

After all, even angels go incognito sometimes. You never know who that person next to you in the airport, or on the bus, or in the restaurant, might really be.

+Peace, and all good.