Window Dressings

To get anywhere out of my subdivision here in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A., I need to avoid the construction on the main way out, Leestown Road, with its long delays.  I most often take a narrow, winding, two-lane road through the fields of a horse farm, Calumet.  It is exactly like all the other famous and lesser-known horse farms here in Fayette County in one aspect.  On the main highway and grand entrance of the farm, Versailles Road, all the fences are bright white.  In the back fields of the farms, the fences are painted black.

There's a reason for this "window dressing."  The white paint does not wear as good nor last as long as the black paint, and it's a lot more expensive.  But it's prettier.  I learned that on a tour of a horse farm once.

In Victorian Times, we see in the movies, families entertained in their "parlors, front rooms."  The absolute best of what they could afford in furniture, stained glass windows, and other furnishing was put into this room to impress all the guests.

This "window dressing," impressing passers-by is still done by retail stores to lure us customers in to buy what they sell.  It seems nearly everyone wants to make a good first impression.

So, what is our personal "window dressing?"  What is the impression folks usually make when they first see us?  Are we consistently neat, friendly, smiling, well-groomed, healthy?  First impressions are formed within milliseconds!  How do we wish to appear to others?

How we dress, fix our hair, our gait (how we walk), how we speak - everything is noticed in a flash!  And we definitely judge the character of a person by what we see.  Is this fair?  Maybe not, but it's how we humans are programmed!

This is precisely one important reason against on-line dating and all the facebook "relationships."  We cannot get any kind of an accurate picture of a real person by what they type about themselves on a computer!  Just yesterday on the news was another reference on TV reporting that "cheating" on facebook is the cause of an incredible number of divorces now.

Be careful who you "friend!"

Dear Lord, help us use all technology to be better persons, help us have relationships with REAL people!