Passing Judgement

One thing I particularly have a problem with is quick and silly judgement.  People are so quick to pass judgement on a situation that they are missing a significant portion of details from.  But, it doesn't matter, because they see what they want to see.

Eating disorder aside, it happens to anyone and everyone quite frequently.  Appearance can only say so much, and yet, as humans, that is what we base the majority of our analysis on.

Why do we do this?  Why are we hasty to make complete fools of ourselves?  Why for all the silly sayings like "don't judge a book by it's cover", do we still insist on doing so?

I'm definitely guilty, and I'm sure a fair portion of you all out there are as well.  My main efforts to combat this in my own life have been to find common ground.  Hey, you don't know everything about a person, and it's very hard to have a meaningful conversation without something to talk about, right?

For example, I used to work as a medical assistant.  One of the patients I remember was obese, reaked of smoke, and was covered in tattoos and piercings.  Was she someone I generally would have sought to make friends with?  Probably not.  Would I have given her a skeptical glance if I saw her in the supermarket?  Probably…..  However, here is what I did.  She had a giant cherry tattoo on her forearm, and when I was taking her blood pressure, I brought it up.  "Oh!  That is so cute!  I love cherries!" I said.  To which she perked up, smiled and told me they were her favorite as well.  Then we proceeded to tell each other about the shoes and earrings and assorted accessories that we collected that had cherries on them.

Had I not tried to find common ground, and just passed her off as a slovenly fat person, I never would have been able to get to know her as a sweet and kind woman.

Knowing that as well, we need to give others the benefit of the doubt.  There are things about ourselves we wouldn't readily share with the rest of the world.  And perhaps comments or actions from other may cause us to take offense because of these things.  We should try to remember, most people aren't intentionally "out to get us".  Some people are just oblivious and don't think before they speak, or and genuinely not aware something may be offensive to you.  Don't be so quick to judge them either.