This reel came into my feed yesterday and I thought it was kind of funny. There was this very attractive young woman sitting on her motorcycle. She had, (obviously), dyed blonde hair and tons of ink on her arms and her chest. I believe that many men, (or women), would find her attractive and her look, edgy. But, instead of offering her any compliments, or anything like that, the narrator guy on the reel proclaims, “Look at her. Look at the ways she’s dressed. Look at all that ink. She’s just telling you that she’s a nightmare who has all kinds of damage and trauma and will mess up your life!”
 
Sure, “THEY,” always seem to say that about people who are into ink; that have all of these psychological issues and all kinds of that kind of stuff. I don’t know, I’ve never been with a woman who was all inked-up. But, I believe there is some truth in the truth of the fact that people do project who they are, and what they are, via the way they dress, and do their hair, and get inked up, and all of that kind of stuff. Don’t you think that’s true?
 
I know in my life, whenever I have overlooked the obvious with people, it has come back to haunt me. Whenever I got involved with the too good to be true or the ones who projected themselves with a megaphone, it has all gone wrong.
 
This has taken place to me here in the States, in Asia, you name it…
 
I remember when I was spending a lot of time in the PRC, I met this girl. Just gorgeous! Our eyes met, and that was that. I mean, she was everyman’s dream. I was young back then. I still believed in all the believing. We walked down the road, as the proverbial saying goes, and never looked back. Never looked back until her other boyfriend(s), and yes, I use the term, “Boyfriends,” came knocking on my hotel room door, telling me that they were her One and Only True Love. That THEY loved her. That she loved them. That…

I found all of that very amusing; like a telenovela erupting right in front of my eyes. I also saw them as no competition. I mean, I was young, I was American, I had an American Express Platinum Card. Like I always said back then of the women I met, they had a dollar sign in one eye and a green card in the other. Anyway…
 
It kept getting, “Better.” Better, if you want to use such a term. All the lies. All the promises. All the BS. But, I lived what I lived and it all felt so good, all so real, until it did not. Then, it all went to shit. Eventually, I bailed. I bailed but not before I had spent a lot of money and I had spent a lot of time.
 
And, that’s the thing/this is the thing, immediately when you met a person you can know who they are. You can know who they are if only you allow yourself to know who they are. But, we are the ones who blind ourselves to that truth. Like me with that girl’s beauty.
 
Think about a time when you met someone—you met them and you really liked them. Maybe you hoped for love, for life-advancement, for whatever. And, for a time you spent some time with them. Then, it did not turn out the way you hoped. Maybe it even went very-very wrong. I know that’s happened to me on more than one occasion. But, think back to when you first met them, when you got to know them; couldn’t you tell who they were? Maybe you lied to yourself. But, you knew; didn’t you? You knew the kind of person they were. Maybe you hoped they would change. But, people never change. Maybe you hoped they would not do that whatever to you that they did to someone else. But, people all do what they do to everyone. And, if they have done it to someone else, why wouldn’t they do it to you?
 
What does all this mean? Trust your gut, trust your instinct. Yeah, maybe that person is beautiful. Maybe they are your dreamed of whatever. But, if at the end of the day they mess up your life, do you really want to choose them to be with?