Appearances

I owe someone an apology.

I just returned from lunch at the neighbourhood diner (pictures to come). Diners, of course, seem to attract the denim wearing, unshaven, and unwashed which is why they tend to stick out in the nation's capital, and why I prefer to eat in them. I would much rather eat at the Chateau Lafayette than the Chateau Laurier. Well, usually.

So I was surprised at the conversation I overheard from the next booth. A woman, maybe 50 years old, dressed awkwardly in old, used clothes, and certainly not in the usual government garb, was joined by a man, maybe 55, overweight, long scraggly beard, with what looked to be a permanently grumpy look on his face. To be honest, I assumed he was another Bank street-dwelling pub urchin. She saw him come in and called him over to her table.

I expected them to talk about hockey, or about tv shows, or about how so-and-so got into another fight last night. Instead, she pulls out the National Post and says "here, I wanna read you something." She then read at length an article about Jane Fonda. She then put down the paper and presented her views on how Jane Fonda probably made a mistake in speaking out about the Vietnam War, but that she contributed to how we framed our thinking about the war and our response to it. Her interlocutor agreed, and added that it was interesting how her career never really recovered after her public stance.

Ok, so maybe this wasn't a discussion on the geo-political dimensions of American domestic economic policy. But I was both shocked and disappointed about my prejudices. Here I am, someone who detests labels and who works feverishly to rid myself of them as much as possible, continues to label people by how they look. I assumed they wouldn't even pick up a newspaper, let alone have anything interesting to add to the debate.

So I apologize to my diner-mates, and promise to try harder to stop judging people by how they look. And I look forward to some good conversation the next time I need a burger and a bottomless cup of coffee.