Of Book and Covers

I have always heard the saying "You can't judge a book by it's cover." or something along that lines. I have been a proponent of that thinking for a long time, both literally and figuratively.

Literally because I love to read. I am constantly scanning the selves looking for books. If the books are situated with their spines out, I look for a name that catches my eye. But if you notice, publishers have gotten smart and put small graphics of the cover art on the spine or printed the cover so the graphic art wraps around the book, drawing the potential buyer in. If the book is displayed with cover facing out, the graphic is always the first thing I look at. I am a very visual person so if there is a picture, I will look at it first...thus my fascination with National Geographic, television, movies, and pictures...but I digress.

Now I am ashamed to admit that if the cover doesn't appeal to me, I probably won't even pick up the book and read the synopsis or open it and read a page or two. I will sweep on by to the next book. I also readily admit that if the cover is to clichey (don't think that's really a word), such as a romance with the "bodice ripper" graphic of the hunky man and the swooning woman I won't be caught dead making that purchase (well, not usually) even though it may be a well written story.

The question, you may ask, is why would that even bother me. Well in the figurative application I have always thought I didn't do that, meaning judge a book by it's cover, because it has happened so often to me.

You see, I have always been overweight, quiet (most of the time), and a loner. So many people have instantaneously judged me and have not taken the time to get to know me or move past what they see on the surface. The outside graphic doesn't appeal to them, so they don't even read a couple of pages to see if it really is a good book. See where I'm going here. I still struggle with the effects of this.

I struggle every day to remind myself that I am more than many people think I am and in the converse I struggle to think that I am what people see in me...people who have taken the time and/or energy to get to know me. But the I try to remind myself not to make the same mistake with other people that has been made with me.

I sometimes don't know how often I fail at not judging people by what they look like, what they have done, who they have been until I am given a wake up call. One such event is the impetus for this post.

The other night I was working on my manuscript and I had the television on for background noise. I had flipped around and landed on "Inside the Actors Studio". I like this show generally so I just left it, although I wasn't very interested in the night's featured actor. Mark Wahlberg. My first reaction when I heard him introduced was MarkieMark, rapper, bad ass, yada yada yada and I proceeded to tune out...or at least try to.

Soon I stopped trying to write/type and just watched the television. I couldn't help but feel that I was listening to one of the most honest and real interviews that I had ever seen given by an actor. This was a man who had lived his life the only way he knew how. Did things that he seriously regrets but doesn't deny responsibility for. A man who is working to be a better person today.

I finished that television program and thought to myself that I had done what I didn't want people to do to me. I had judged a person by what I had seen only looking at him years ago and not who he was now. My perception of him wasn't based on who he is now. I was wrong.

Mark Wahlberg is a man I would like to know, not because he is a celebrity or rich, but because I believe he is a truly good person in the here and now, where it matters. I will probably never get to know or even meet him, but knowing there are people like him, who remind me daily that you shouldn't judge books or people by their covers, makes me a better person.