who we are is not necessarily how others see us

After attending worship and the inaugural meeting of the empty nester's club (All Right! -Jim, that's for you.) Ron and I spent the rest of the day as volunteers parking cars for a polo game. I know nothing about polo but in exchange for volunteers to handle the parking the agency I work for will get paid / donation to go towards our building fund. (Since we are at licensed capacity in the county with a LOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG waiting list for services a new building is really needed. ) Anyway, here I am in shorts, t-shirt and a lovely orange vest directing people to the proper parking places. I shortly discovered that the way people addressed me - while friendly - was definitely not the way I am usually addressed. I was rather entertained by the number of times I was called Honey, Doll, Babe, etc. by people that in other circumstances would be calling me Mrs. Staggs, ma'am, etc. Their perception of who I was seemed to be very dependent on the role I was playing at the time. Don't get me wrong - no one was intentionally rude, people were pleasant/smiling/cooperative. It did make me think about how I see myself, how I see others and how they see me..I might need to be a little more careful about my assumptions about who people are in future interaction.