I stood in O'hare airport international baggage claim a  few years back awaiting my luggage when 2 policewomen with a dog came sniffing through.  I looked at the guy next to me and thought  "HE must have drugs!" Next thing I knew, one of the policewomen asked me VERY LOUDLY to "drop my bags"!  Yikes, the dog was sniffing ME!!!!  Talk about embarrassing, even though they found nothing on me.  Nor did they find anything ON THE OTHER GUY....you know, the one I THOUGHT they were gonna' stop cuz' it never even crossed my mind that it could be me?!

GREAT humbling lesson on snap judgement, eh?

Brought to mind this quote that hangs on my frig. I used it countless times in training with staff and volunteers for the inner city Community Ministry where I served as director.  It kind of became my mantra.

"When there are walls of ignorance between people.  When we don't know each other's stories, we substitute our own myth about who the person is.  When we are operating with only a myth, none of that person's truth will ever be known to us, and we will injure them-mostly without ever meaning to. 
What story do we tell ourselves in the the absence of knowing a person's real story?"
Paula Lawrence Wehmiller, Harvard Educational Review                                                                                                             

When I re read it today, I was struck with how much it still resonates with me so I wanted to share it with you.

It just seems fitting in this day and age when there are SO MANY of us who don't know each other yet speak OF each other as if we do.

And, that has, indeed, injured many.

You might even be one of those who has been injured.

If so, I am sorry.

Use it, though, as a reason to begin to tell YOUR story.

Use it as a reason to ask others to tell THEIR story.

Finally, think of a time when YOU might have caused injury.   Ask yourself HONESTLY, "what story did I tell myself in the absence of knowing someone's real story"....what did I DECIDE about one person or many persons based solely on color, sex, age, economics, weight, profession, neighborhood, religion, a dog's scent, yadayadyada....

Now, take that awareness and USE it by telling YOUR story and LISTENING to others' stories.

Be not a hurting but a healing agent in this world.

This world NEEDS healing.

And, sniffing dogs, I guess?!?!