In a Blink

I judged. Again. It was a small judgment, relatively speaking. But still, it was a judgment.

My sister-in-law Vanessa and I planned to have dinner at an upscale restaurant in Saint Paul, but when we arrived at the spot, the hostess informed us that we couldn’t be seated until much later in the evening. She recommended we try a place called The Happy Gnome one block down. “It has a bar atmosphere, but the food is terrific,” she insisted.

I was skeptical. As we trundled down Grand Avenue in search of the strangely named Happy Gnome, I said to Vanessa, “I don’t know about this. She didn’t look like a fancy food person.”

And there it was: the judgment.

I had glanced at the hostess, and in two or three seconds had digested her appearance: graphic tattoos snaking up her forearm; the plunging neckline, exposing way too much decolletage for a hostess. When she smiled, I noticed she had a little something stuck in her front tooth, a poppy seed, or perhaps a fleck of almond.

So I took those sparse details and in an instant concluded that the hostess was a particular type of person – friendly, sure; well-meaning, yes. But able to discern fancy food? Someone with a poppy seed lodged in her front tooth? I don’t think so.

We all know how this story ends. The food at The Happy Gnome was indeed divine. I devoured pan-seared sea bass on a bed of parmesan risotto and garlic brocolini; fresh, soft bread, warm from the oven; a glass of Shiraz.

I ate my dinner. And my words.

The hostess had been spot-on. Of course she knew fancy food; she worked at one of the best restaurants in Saint Paul. She was in the fancy food business. But I had overlooked that obvious detail in favor of judging her appearance…and judging her.

It’s so easy sometimes, isn’t it? Judgment doesn’t always flash like a neon sign. Sometimes it slips in the side door, cloaked and stealthy. We have to be on guard. We can judge in a blink.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3)