Don’t judge a book by its cover her perspective

from Bella Magazine June 2023

TRAVEL TIPS

Those of you who loyally read this column may remember my very first Her Perspective, “Podcasts: Listen at Your Own Pace” in the April 2021 issue. The world was filled with COVID chaos and divisive politics, so I pitched a humor column to my editor.

I was honest with her – with a college degree in business administration and a career in sales management, I may not be very good, but I love to write. I think I remember her saying that curiosity and open-mindedness are often more important than writing skills, right before she said, “you’re hired!’

I was nervous to put myself out there. Just like when you cringe at the sound of your own voice in a video, I had butterflies in my belly when I first saw my words on the printed page.

I anxiously asked an old writer friend what he thought about my first column.

“I’ve been listening to podcasts for years and know everything there is to know about them, so I skipped your tutorial,” he abruptly responded.

At first my feelings were hurt, but I just swallowed my pride, smiled and walked away. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

My story wasn’t really about podcasts. It was a selfdeprecating tale about humility – not taking yourself too seriously. It was about laughing at yourself when you get old and can’t keep up with whippersnapper technology, try as you might. Like recently when my teenage daughter desperately called me from a sports road trip and needed me to submit an assignment from her school-issued laptop. It took me longer than I’m willing to admit to figure out how to open an Apple laptop (my computer is a desktop dinosaur). She had to facetime me from the bus and her whole team laughed hysterically at my feeble attempts. Once I figured out which side was up (the dang Apple is upside down on purpose), which side had the hinges (when did they start using rubber, not metal, for hinges?) and how to unsnap all four of the tight corner lock-snaps, submitting the assignment was the easy task.

Have you ever judged a book by its cover?

Or a song by its title? I surely have. One of my favorite songs is “A-Punk” by Vampire Weekend. It sounds like it would be a death metal slam dance song, but it is a delightfully light, catchy tune that your grandma would love.

I’ve never read “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens. I was forced to read “Great Expectations” in high school, and it did not meet my great expectations. However, my book club chose to read Barbara Kingsolver’s fantastic novel “Demon Copperhead,” a modern take on the Dickens classic. My curiosity sparked and I had to go down deep into the Dickensian rabbit hole.

I found this quote in the David Copperfield SparkNotes: “Copperfield learns, repeatedly and in a variety of ways, not to judge based on physical and social appearances but on individual character. What society might assume is a weakness can actually be transformative strength.”

Thanks, Charles, for teaching me that being judgy was just as uncool in the 1800s as it is now. Just because someone drinks their water from a dented Hydro Flask, not a Yeti or a Stanley, doesn’t mean they’re lame. Closing the coverless book on this, I will leave you with a quote of my own. It’s a bit more Seinfeldian than Dickensian. Actually, it’s a few words of Lizdom:

“You might as well laugh at yourself; it’s better than crying at yourself.”