Perception - Its everything and It can be majorially skewed

A few weekends ago, the kids, their cousins, a couple of friends and I went to New Symrna Beach. (This beach allows cars to be on the beach and sadly there has been some tragedies when a vehicle and a sun bather collide.) While we were there, it happened again.

Also, NSB is one the largest shark capitols of the world. On this Saturday, my son and two of his cousins were in the water with me. I turned to walk back to the beach and noticed this truck going down the beach following a Beach Patrol truck. The driver of the truck was frantically waving a hand out the window and honking her horn. It was obvious that she was trying to get the attention of Beach Patrol. Immediately, I scanned the water looking for a fin and got the boys out of the water.

By the time, we got to the shore, there were several firetrucks, ambulance, Beach Patrol and a medic helicopter up above. And a pretty large group of people congrating in one area. Andrew went over to see what he could find out. He came back with the story that someone's leg is all bloody but didn't know the how. I immediately thought it just had to be a shark attack and there was some of that talk going on around us. Perception from what we could see was a shark attack.

But here is what happened, a truck was driving on the beach (thankfully, under the speed limit). A four year old girl came out of water by herself and didn't think to look. She hit the bumper of the truck and was briefly dragged causing scratches on her face. Thankfully, she was ok.

But what really happened and what I thought had happened were no where close to each other. This was a majorially skewed perception that only had a similarity of blood. Made me wonder how many times I jump to the wrong conclusion because I'm making my decisions on skewed perception. I'm trying hard to slow down those judgments and take the time to find out what has happened. I know that I don't like being misunderstood or the thought that there is a preconceived decision without knowing my story. It's worth the disclipline of not jumping to conclusions.