ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING
… beware and be aware of judgment, especially your own
Wednesday May 28, 2014
To judge, or to be judged – is not a question – but an alternative.
When others judge us, how does that feel?
It feels lousy.
It inflicts a wound on us, and it attempts to murder our spirit, right?
If we know that, if we understand that, then why judge others?
Perhaps it’s human nature, something we can’t get over – or maybe it’s something stupid we never got over in junior high school . . .
More cruel however is those who judge themselves, and who do so harshly. I encountered this yesterday, a note from someone I’ve never met … putting themselves down in harsh terms, suggesting that I would find them very disappointing. How sad. I who have no opinion about someone have been given a preview, by them, which is wholly negative.
Why, I wonder, would someone judge themselves so harshly?
I’m no student of psychology – so I’m just guessing here, but I suspect that person has been judged harshly before, perhaps harshly enough and often enough that they’ve begun believing it. Now, THAT is cruel. Why would one person do that to another person?
Next time we judge someone – with or without the whole body of evidence – we should remember we aren’t in a court room, we aren’t judges and our judging behaviour is not likely to bring joy to anyone.
I am amazed at how nice some people are. At how kind some people are. I like that. I try to emulate that.
But when I see how judging and cruel some people are, I can’t imagine a reason why that could be called good in any fashion.
Mark Kolke
197,600
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 7C/45F, calm, rainy still, rainy overnight and more rainy predicted – birds chirping, wishing for sunshine. We walked down a fresh block – wow … an ornamental cherry tree in every yard on each side of the street, blossoms to blow your mind. What an awesome sight. I loved it, but Gusta was too distracted by a mini-poodle headed the other way. I wonder, where scenery is concerned, if anything impresses dogs other than another dog?
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Hi Mark, Your musings today about “matter over mind” brought this article back to mind about how scientists are trying to convert energy to matter and in the future perhaps into time and vice versa. Experiment will be the purest demonstrations of E=mc^2. We can only hope that for what we think of today will someday be a reality, DK, Edmonton, AB
