Honk!

I took JD to a Peninsula Youth Theatre production of "Honk!" today. He saw their production of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" last month. I was pretty impressed with the quality of the performance - especially the girl who played the mother duck and the boy who played the cat. The musical is about an ugly duckling who is teased by everyone (except his mother) but later turns into a beautiful swan. With Mother's Day tomorrow, I was certainly struck by how the mother duck stuck by her child even though everyone else (including the father duck) rejected him. I wanted to have a conversation with JD about how we shouldn't judge or tease others simply because they're "different". That immediately made me realize that I do that all the time. I don't mean to. It's simply instinct. For those of you have read Blink or Gift of Fear, there are certainly benefits to "thin-slicing" and trusting your instincts with strangers and/or dangerous situations. I wonder how to continue to benefit from these innate capabilities that evolution has fine-tuned over thousands of years but not have them limit me or cause me to be treat (or judge) people unfairly. Blink offers some suggestions in that regard (education, awareness) but they're easier said than done.