Pardon the Appearance

Elephants’ noses grow like Pinocchio… that’s not a real thing.

—Jig3125

An elephant never asked to be compared to Pinocchio.

It simply showed up with a trunk.

An impressive one, admittedly.

Useful.

Strong.

Remarkably versatile.

Yet someone, somewhere, couldn’t resist making the connection.

That’s what people do.

Compare.

Assume.

Decorating reality with explanations that fit comfortably inside our own heads.

Sometimes they’re accurate.

Sometimes they’re cartoons.

The funny thing is that first impressions often borrow details from places they don’t belong.

A fairy tale.

A rumor.

A stereotype.

A single experience stretched into a universal truth.

Before long, fiction starts dressing like fact.

Pardon the appearance…

It may not be telling the whole story.

The world is full of things that look familiar without actually being the same.

Perhaps the better habit is curiosity.

Ask first.

Observe longer.

Laugh when the comparison is funny.

But don’t mistake a resemblance for reality.

After all…

An elephant’s trunk isn’t growing because it told a lie.

That’s not a real thing.

Neither are many of the stories we invent the first time we look at someone.

— JIG3125