Cliché

You can't judge a book by it's cover...

Look's like a lovely place, no? This wall surrounds a resort called Couples (not sure if it is still called that) in Jamaica. Outside the walls of the resort we witnessed the worst poverty and degradation I have seen in my 39 years of life thus far. The ride from the airport to our resort filled me with horror and sadness (and major motion sickness).

The following is a list of the other participants in this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge. Very interesting topic this week, Kat! Really made me think.

The Kat - From Every Angle
Aunt Nub (AKA Liz) - Aunt Nub's Empty Head
Celeste - My Day and Thoughts
Steven - (sometimes)photoblog
Monica - Mamarazzi
Becky - Where Life Takes You
Gypsy - Gypsy's Journey
Carly - Ellipsis
Alan - F-Stop
Kimberleigh - Life as I live it
Karen - Musings from Mâvarin
Robbie - Robbie's Ruminations
Betty - My Day My Interests
Duane - sotto voce
Nancy - Nancy Luvs Pix
Sharky - Substance; or lack of
Patrick - A Stop At Willoughby
Coy -  Dancing in the Rain
Mary - Alphawoman's Blog
Michael - Confessions of a Mad Man
Derek - Derek's Picture of the Day
Tess - First Digital Photos

This cliché also fit in with the regular journal entry I was contemplating writing today. A few weeks ago I was reading through my day's allotment of journal alerts and I stopped in on one of my journal friends to read what I thought was a standard "Mommy" posting. As I flipped through her uploaded photos I did a triple-take. One of the photos was NOT like the others. She had obviously uploaded it by mistake. My opinion of her rose several notches and I couldn't help but grin.

That woman has a side to her that you NEVER see in her journal. I felt like I was peeping through a keyhole into a part of her life that she doesn't normally share...and I loved it! (Not to mention the fact that she is HOT STUFF, in my humble opinion.) 

So I got to thinking. Most of the journals I read are extremely personal and full of honest and pure emotion. But they are still only a reflection of what the writer WANTS us to see. I may get a certain idea of who that person is (and I feel fairly certain that my impression is accurate) but there is still that X% of what goes on in a person's head that is held back. No one (that I know of) writes 100% of who they are into their journal (including me), and that X% you don't know just may shock and surprise you.

I just love surprises. ;-)