things are not always what they seem…

On a long flight, there was a stopover before the final destination was reached. The flight attendant explained that if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft, the plane would re-board in 50 minutes. Everybody got off the plane except one gentleman who was blind. You could tell the man was blind because his guide dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of him throughout the entire flight. You could also tell he had flown this very flight many times before because the pilot approached him, and calling him by name said, “Keith, we’re here for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs? The blind man replied, “No thanks, but maybe my dog would like to stretch his legs.”

Picture this: All the people in the gate area came to a complete stand still when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a guide dog! The pilot was even wearing sunglasses. People naturally misread the situation! This is not a true story (or so Snopes says), but a reminder that things are not always what they seem…

A FEW OTHER THINGS THAT GOOGLE SAYS ARE NOT WHAT THEIR NAMES LEAD US TO BELIEVE:

• A firefly is not a fly – it’s a beetle
• A prairie dog is not a dog – it’s a rodent (but so cute!)
• India ink is not from India – it’s from China and Egypt
• A horned toad is not a toad – it’s a lizard
• A lead pencil does not contain lead – it contains graphite



• A Douglas Fir (the classic Christmas tree) is not a fir – it’s a pine
• A silkworm is not a worm – it’s a caterpillar
• A peanut is not a nut – it’s a legume
• A koala bear is not a bear – it’s a marsupial
• An English horn is not English and it isn’t a horn – it’s a French Alto Oboe (sorry, I’ve never heard of a French Alto Oboe?)
• A guinea pig is not from guinea and it is not a pig – it’s a rodent from South America (and also pretty darn cute)



• Shortbread is not a bread – it’s a thick cookie (and a REALLY good cookie too – one of my weaknesses)
• A shooting star is not a star – it’s a meteorite
• A funny bone is not a bone – it’s the spot where the ulnar nerve touches the humerus (humerus = humorous? maybe that’s why it’s called a funny bone?)
• A bald eagle is not bald – it has flat white feathers on its head/neck when mature, and dark feathers when young
• A piece of catgut is not from a cat – it’s usually made from sheep intestines (ewww… and even worse that it says USUALLY)
• A Mexican jumping bean is not a bean – it’s a seed with a larva inside
• A Turkish bath is not Turkish – it’s Roman



• Sweetbread is not bread – it’s the pancreas or thymus gland from a calf or lamb (ewww again)

So… I guess this is sort of a pointless post… but if you combine this nonsense with my previous post about everyone fighting a battle, they kind of fit – THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM. EVERYONE IS FIGHTING A BATTLE. You can’t know what’s going on in someone else’s life, you don’t know their battles, challenges, and heartaches – no matter how close to them you are. You only see what you’re “allowed” to see and then what you see is clouded by your perceptions. I wish the world was that thing we viewed as a child – the one we saw through our rose colored glasses – but it’s just not. I do know, however, that I shouldn’t judge anyone else’s choices – not ONLY because I don’t know what any other person is really going through and what prompted them to make the choices they made, but because I have no right to judge. Like it says in John (and this is my short paraphrase,) “Let he who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” And… if I remember correctly, the one person in this passage who could have thrown a stone, the one person without sin – didn’t…