We try so hard to fit people and things and concepts into boxes. How many times do we all say things like "men are such and such", "women are this way or another", "scientists are so and so"? Most likely many many times. Our brains need some sort of system in order to sort through all the information we get bombarded with every single day, so it makes sense that we need categories - or boxes - that things fit into. And then, all of a sudden, you come across a thing or a person or a phenomenon that just doesn't fit into any of your mental boxes. It can be a little scary.
It just happened to me the other day that I met someone for the first time and not even consciously, assumed so many things about him that I really had no idea about, based mostly on the fact that he was a man. When things turned out differently from what I expected, I got very confused and guarded, and it took some evaluating to realize that I was so wrong to try to shove him into one of my little boxes. Even though it's scary to realize when one makes mistakes of this sort, it's nice to see that people can be so different and it teaches one to try to avoid judging people instead of getting to know them better.
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