Judge a book by its cover. Don't

Middle-aged, white, male.
Jewish immigrant.
Intelligent, athletic, kind, charismatic.
Easy to catch food-stuff.

All define me. The last is a tiger's perspective. The first will be my Census grouping. The one before last, is how I would like others to view me but is so far from reality I know there is no chance anyone will. The second is the one I least identify with but I guess may end up defining me.

One way or another, they are all brush-stroke descriptions that say very little about who we are. We are all too complex to be summed up in a few words. And still, they are very useful ways of capturing an aspect of us. The tiger has only two questions in mind. It doesn't need to know much. Am I nutritious and safe to eat? Will it be risky to attack me? I am not sure if it is interested whether or not I read Proust [and if you are interested: no, I didn't].

When we meet a new person we categorise them within a fraction of a second. If they smile we will naturally warm up to them. If they are well dressed we will imagine they are successful. Probably the first thing we'll notice is gender. Whilst I probably wouldn't like to admit it, and you may well think I am shallow, but, in the first 5 seconds after meeting a gorgeous looking woman I am not that likely to consider how intelligent she might be. And I do recognise there is no scientific evidence for negative correlation between good looks and intelligence. Similarly, if I see an old man in a library pouring over a volume of Proust, I will immediately think he is intelligent and well educated (definitely more than me because, as you now know, I never did read Proust). I will not pause to think he may be the cleaner putting the books back on the shelf.

When we meet a person we always start by labelling them. These labels are barely founded and often unfair categorisations. And, as charged as these labels may be - what does my being short have anything to do with who I am - we cannot avoid them. Doing so does not make us narrow minded or shallow (although in the case of the gorgeous looking woman above I tend to be both). What will make us both shallow and narrow-minded, and even worse, xenophobic, racist, bigoted, misogynist etc, is if we cannot reach beyond these labels and see the real person in front of us.

PS 430km down. 570km to go.