Everyone Counts in the Universal Book of Life

“Everyone is worth knowing.”

O. Henry

Most everyone compares themselves to other people. Sometimes we see ourselves as “less than” and sometimes we see ourselves as “more than” or “better than. “ As a result we categorize people. There are city slickers and there are country bumpkins. There are yuppies and there are rednecks. And who could forget hippies? Or preppies? Or nerds?

Here in the desert, I categorize men based in their choice of footwear. To me, men who wear flip-flops are “cool” and men who wear sandals are “geeks.” Of course, men who wear socks with sandals are “super geeks.” Now stop and think for a moment about the ways in which you categorize and label people.

The point of all of this is that by categorizing and labeling people, we determine in our own minds who is worth knowing and who is not worth knowing—before we ever have a chance to “know” them. In doing so, we eliminate many people from our lives by unfairly judging them as being “too cool” or “too geeky” for us, when in fact, we don’t really know anything about these people. We’ve projected our own prejudice, fear or dislike upon them without ever giving them a chance.

I was watching an episode of Designing Women recently that embodied this idea of prejudging and diminishing people. The Sugarbaker girls decide they need to drum-up new business, and so they hold a raffle. Whoever’s name is chosen from among the raffle entries will receive one room in their home totally redecorated for free by Sugarbaker’s. Much to the surprise of everyone, the winning drawing contains the name of Eldon Ashcroft IV. Sounds like the name of a yuppie, right? Well, turns out Eldon Ashcroft IV is a homeless person.

Actually, Eldon is living in an old abandoned gas station building. And needless to say, the Sugarbaker ladies are less than thrilled about having to renovate it for Eldon. Despite seeing themselves as quite liberated and open-minded, they don’t see Eldon as someone worth knowing. And it’s not until Eldon quotes O. Henry that the Sugarbaker ladies wake-up and realize that they have been unfairly treating Eldon as if he is not worth knowing.

How often are we as guilty as the Sugarbakers? How often do we label and minimalize people as “not worth knowing?” And in doing so, how many people do we eliminate from our lives without ever knowing who they really are, or what goodness they may have to offer our lives?

Just because someone wears sandals (or God forbid, sandals with socks!), it doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth knowing. Just because someone is a street-person, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth knowing. We all have something to contribute to life—to every life—and to the overall life of the Universe. Everyone holds a small piece of the universal truth. Everyone is worth knowing.