Judging a Book by its First Page...

We are often told NOT to judge a book by it's cover, and completely understand the logic and sense of that. Both in literary works AND in people, but what if we judge them by their first page...? 

In any case, the hardest transition I made was going from books with pictures to books without the glorious representation of the written word. I can clearly remember thinking that nothing, NOTHING would be as exciting as my Berenstein Bear Books. To get us to start reading from the young adult sections, my Mom told us this sage advise, who her mother had told her at the same age,

Read the first page, if you can't get past that, then put the book down.

So, I went for it, and found my Mother to be not only a Saint, but an extremely wise woman. To say the least my collection of books on here are only a small representation of the books I've read, look to read, and have started but stopped out of boredom. In any case I had put this into practice so much that it took me years to read one of my favorite books, Gone With The Wind, or GWTW for short. It never failed, I'd open the book, read the first sentence, and would promptly find myself drifting off, to sleep or to some other more pertinent thought, 'like what's for dinner?' or 'I wonder if I like the color white so much because secretly I'm a racist?'. Seriously the beginning of that book was like trying to read the book of Numbers in the Bible, TeDious!

Eventually I got past the first page though, and found the joy that my sister and my Mom had already found years before me; I also eventually got through Numbers...but I shall not look forward to rereading that book anytime soon. So, I ask it here...is it fair to judge people by the same rule that I have been judging books?

Why do I ask? Story TIME!!!
(This is actually from a different post that I changed, but I like the way it's written so...yep)

This past weekend I had the most disturbing realistic dream one can ever have...as a virgin who wishes to stay so. Some half naked guy got in my bed with me and spooned with me until I woke up and rolled over to confront him. I could make this into a really juicy tale...but I'm already grossed out so we'll get to the point, NO I did not have sex in my dream...but yeah I could tell the guy in my bed was aroused. In any case no words were exchanged but there was communication that basically landed me into an engagement with this dude who before, I was certain would remain as JUST a friend.

When I woke up immediately after the dream, I knew, and I mean KNEW that the dude had had the same dream, and I was weird-ed out, but not so much that I didn't rise and head to Church. It actually wasn't until I got home that I got Super CREEPED out and started getting insultingly mad about the whole thing. I mean first of all I felt that this dude was so serious that he reminded me of my Dad...and not in a good way. He reminded me of the guy who preferred The World News Tonight with Peter Jennings over...ANYTHING! He reminded me of a guy who had a very limited sense of humor and who, let's face it, I've been trying to get away from for so many years. And secondly, I felt like I had no choice BUT to say yes to him. He was in my bed, begging me to consider him for the job, and I'd felt sorry for him and relented. I felt slighted!!!


But there's always the other side, which I do Not know the full story. But from what I do, we're very much alike.Besides being a lot like my Dad, he, unlike my Dad, loved sports, played sports, and planned on making a living teaching it to kids. He's a Godly man, and his family is amazing, and I've known them for a while now. A better way to think about this whole thing is that on paper this guy looks like my perfect match...and as a great friend of mine pointed out, so did communism.


Thankfully, the dream was not from Him, and so I don't have to fear not going along with said dream. But the heart of the matter still exists.


He allowed me to see was that I was just as shallow as the next person. How so? Because had this been one of the other guys who I've actually liked in the near past, I assure you I would NOT be so disturbed. It's just that this guy makes me feel like I'm about to be chained to a life of depression and boredom, and I can't, I Can't I CANNOT live like that. So maybe it's not in the same way, but I did and do judge books by their cover....or maybe a better analogy would be their first page. Yeah, that's it, I judge guys by their first page, and if it looks like a boring book, I read no further. And all of this time I thought that I was above that type of mullarky...but, nope I am not. 

 So there you have it, it seems that my knack for being able to judge great character and pleasing personalities has gone right out the window. Much the same as Samuel the Prophet who went looking among Jesse's sons for the next King of Israel, and thought that he knew which one it was going to be...only to be wrong. I know for a fact that God reads and knows everyone's entire book and I don't question Him, but I do say that I'd like to see some of what He sees before I make such a decision. And so while I am wrong, I also know that I am on the right track, it's just that I need to read a bit more of these books before tossing them out the window lol!

Lessons Learned: Read more than the first page to get a clear understanding of the person you're talking to.

Problem: Habits like these are HARD to break!!!!!!!!!!! UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!