Schooled

You get an impression of people immediately whether you like it or not. You can’t help it, it’s just human nature. For example, if you and I happen to be standing on the street and I say to you “look at that sad looking dustbin man” you are likely to have formed an impression even before you turn your head. Then you look at him, and regardless of if he looks sad or not, the words I put in to your head will make him seem so.

Something happened in London, when I was eighteen, which changed my perception of dustbin men forever. Me and a friend were standing outside the university campus discussing something to do with philosophy – it was steadily turning in to an argument – when a bin man appeared nearby. He gave us a strange look, a look of doom (as they do), and then walked away with a bin. That was when my friend said “what does he know about philosophy?” And at that the bin man stopped abruptly, turned around and walked back to us. Then he stopped a foot away from my friend and folded his arms, and proceeded to enlighten us about philosophy. Actually it started out like that, but after two minutes a small crowd had formed around him and was clapping. We were being schooled by the dust-bin man–After he was done with that he schooled us on trends in Bedfordshire property and a number of other entirely unexpected things...

The moral is this: never underestimate someone. If they look like they have no idea, it doesn’t mean a thing...