On one hand,\nI was not presenting myself in a good light. Apparently, dudes have RBF too. I\ncarried myself in a way that was immature, irreverent, and sometimes mean. I\ndidn\u2019t appear to care about anyone other than myself. This was the first\nimpression of everyone that met me. Hopefully, I\u2019ve fixed that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nExample: There\u2019s\na book by author Anne Lamott called \u201cBird By Bird\u201d. The cover has birds and\neggs on it. So naturally, your first impression is this will be about birds.\nMaybe watching them, taking care of them, learning about the various species.\nThat\u2019s the first impression it gives off. It turns out that this book has\nabsolutely no mention of birds in it at all. It\u2019s an instructional guide to\nwriting that lists the instructions piece by piece or \u201cbird by bird\u201d. Not\nexactly what you thought it was going to be about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other\nhand, these friends of mine went with what they saw and heard before they ever\neven said a word to me. The ones that gave me a chance found that I wasn\u2019t\nanything like what they thought. They would say things like, \u201cYou\u2019re actually\ncool, funny and just normal.\u201d Well anyone that knows me knows I\u2019m anything but\nnormal. But I\u2019m of the belief that the only thing in life that\u2019s normal is a\ncycle on a washing machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nExample: I\u2019m\nnot a Trump apologist. I AM NOT. We all know he doesn\u2019t have a very good \u201ccover\u201d\non his book. But I was struck by a speech Steve Harvey gave in which he was\npushed in to meeting with Trump as part of a request from the Obama transition\nteam. So he went. Harvey told Trump all about how he didn\u2019t vote for him. How\nhe campaigned for Clinton. He said he\u2019d been asked to help Trump, so he was\nthere. Trump asked how he could help. Harvey said that Ben Carson was in charge\nof Urban Development and that schools were closing. Harvey could help revive\ncities and that those local leaders would listen to him and would get Carson in\nthe door easier. Harvey asked for HUD money to open the schools for STEM, to also\nteach computers and coding in inner cities. What happened next changed\neverything Steve Harvey originally thought. While they were still sitting\nthere, Trump said, \u201cI like it! Let\u2019s get Ben on the phone right now!\u201d The next\nthing you know, they\u2019re meeting to discuss launching this concept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nFollowing\nthis meeting, Harvey received a flurry of comments laced in vitriol. He was\ncalled everything BUT Steve. The hate was spewed so hard and heavy that Harvey\nsaid that even he was surprised by it- implying that at age 60, he doesn\u2019t get\nsurprised much. When asked why he would agree to meet with Trump, he answered,\n\u201cI had an obligation to take a seat at the table when invited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harvey, when\ninvited, felt two things. One, he felt it an honor to be in the White House in\nthe best country on the planet, regardless of who was president. And two, he\nknew that if he was going to get the chance to speak to Trump, this was his\nchance to discuss with him what he thinks needs major improvement. In other\nwords, he knew that if he never spoke with someone he disagrees with, nothing\nwould ever get done. There\u2019s a great deal of awesome sauce in this concept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nNow insert\nRapinoe. Megan Rapinoe publicly stated that she would not visit the White\nHouse, if invited. My first thought was \u201chow unpatriotic\u201d. But my next thought\nwas, \u201cif she\u2019s this passionate about certain societal issues, this would be her\nchance to voice them and see if there\u2019s room for discussion.\u201d But that would\nrequire listening to someone you don\u2019t agree with and attempting to see their\nside. Something I\u2019m not sure Rapinoe\u2019s capable of, but I hope she is. Trump did\njust that for Harvey. Again, I\u2019m not an apologist for Trump. But these are\nfacts you can\u2019t ignore. And those of you that consider Rapinoe to be mean and\nirreverent, that\u2019s the cover\u2026 you don\u2019t know the contents of the book. You may\nalso be surprised by her if you were to get to know her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our society\nis so quick to judgment on almost everything. Who cares what the facts are?!\nFacebook said it, so it\u2019s true! We all get caught up there. We should never\njudge a book by its cover, but we should all work on making our cover pleasant\nand accurate- depicting who we really are. And if we\u2019ll be slow to view the\ncover and actually look inside the book, we just might be pleasantly surprised.\nBut it will require us to be prepared to listen to someone that we don\u2019t agree\nwith. At least to hear them out. To find common ground. But if you never open\nthe book\u2026 you\u2019re left with only the cover. And here we sit: still thinking the\nbook is about birds. Open the book. But first, open your mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stay Classy GP! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grainger <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI thought you were a real jerk, a punk, a know-it-all who gets on my nerves!\u201d Every single friend I had growing up eventually said that to me. Not kidding. Every. Single. One. This statement implicated quite a few things. First, it implicated that I came across as all of those things. I didn\u2019t give … <\/p>\n