day thirty - who am I to judge?
Society can teach us, from an incredibly young age, to be judgemental. All around us are demonstrations of how, who, what and when to judge. While this isn’t consistently negative - at times it’s imperative - it can be a slippery slope leading to lots of generalising, prejudice and dangerous ‘ists’.
The effect of being constantly judged (or pre-judged) by others is hard, and often takes its toll, especially on mental health.
As a young, middle-class, white male, I was experiencing prejudice, but it was largely [*oxymoron alert] “good prejudice” and, as I didn’t experience many negative effects, I didn’t notice it at the time,.
I found myself however, in my late teens/early twenties really questioning many of the now default judgements (or prejudices) I was being implicitly told to make on those around me. It just didn’t sit well.
It dawned on me that I could wipe out a huge amount of judgements and prejudice by making one simple rule…
Don’t judge people on things they have no control over.
Instantly, age, gender, race, ethnicity, and a whole slew of others became things that I no longer allowed myself to judge others on.
Now, don’t get me wrong… this still leaves a huge amount of things to get judgy about, but now it’s about the individual person, not a group of people. It’s about how a specific person treats other people and the world around them, and that allows space for so many beautiful interactions with wonderful, positive people from all walks of life… (and from a selfish point of view, there are times when my brain and I need all the positive interactions and wonderful people we can get).
Kilt of the Day - Ross Modern Hunting Tartan
Soundtrack of the day - Bo Diddley - You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lch0o4wwGyw
Bonus Soundtrack for this special day - Improvisation on Happy Birthday - Dennis Matsuev
