Judgment. It’s everywhere, isn’t it?
We judge people’s success by the houses in which they live or the cars they drive. By what they purchase in the grocery store. We make snap judgments about people’s clothing, race, behavior, religion, their physical characteristics, where they go to school -- everything, every day, all the time.
Why do we do that? Fear, I think. We’re all walking around in a state of stupefied fear, worrying about conforming.
In my 20s, I judged. A lot. I think we all do it in our more formative years. We’re bombarded by so much media imagery telling us how to look, what to buy, how to think, what to like, and on and on. The pressure to fit in, from others and ourselves, is overwhelming.
However, with age does come wisdom and a realization that we were doing it wrong in our youth. I’m ashamed and embarrassed by some of the silent and not-so-silent judging I did in my younger days, giving into my rage and angst to deflect my shortcomings by focusing on what I perceived to be someone else’s.
Today, my inner judge is under much tighter control. I’ve found it’s easier to be at peace with the realization that we’re all on a countdown to oblivion, and it’s what we do with that time that matters, not what someone else does. Judging ourselves should be far more important.
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Remove your judgments whenever you wish and then there is calm -- as the sailor rounding the cape finds smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay.”
Would that we could all find that waveless bay more often.
Don’t judge me. I’m Wester Wuori, and that’s my Perspective.
