“Once you have a belief, it influences how you perceive all other relevant information. Once you see a country as hostile, you areliekly to interpret ambiguous actions on their part as signifying their hostility.”

Robert Jervis

My boss, a couple friends, and I were talking about one of our co-workers this afternoon–I shall refer to him as Hypocrisy from this point on.

Hypocrisy is around my age (possibly a few years my senior). You can almost tell by seeing him that he is not made of the same stuff as you and I. He dresses from head to toe in black – regardless of setting, temperature, or time of day. He has a larger than normal frame; he’s almost dumpy. His skin is a pasty white color that suggests an Irish ancestry.

Regardless of how anyone appears, it is their character that is the true test of their humanity. I have never considered myself a superficial person, so I wasn’t about to start when I met Hypcrisy. I spoke to him genially, as one colleauge to another. At first I noticed no abnormalities. It is not until I started knowing him better, and he … fell in love … with a close friend that he started becoming an annoying and almost threatening presence.

My charitable self seeks to correct his social ineptness yet my code of social behavior seeks to shun him. I can only hope he grows up, learns to deal with his insecurities, and finds the boons of society someday.