“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
judgement
Reading a Thriller While on the Elliptical Machine
I like to read mysteries and thrillers while I exercise on the elliptical machine. The more exciting the book the faster I move. I frequently don’t realize how fast I’m moving until the exciting part is over and I glance at the data on the machine and see my elevated heart rate. The book I’m now reading has an antagonist who thinks he knows what other people are thinking. Yes, he’s loco. What was interesting for me was that after my workout I continued to think about the antagonist and realized that his actions were not so different than some of mine. I asked myself how often I judge others without having any data on which to base my judgement. I didn’t like the answer I was getting to that question. I am going to try to be more aware of what I am thinking about other people and asking myself, “Do you have sufficient data to come to that conclusion?” I still want the protagonist in the book to take down the antagonist. I think I’ll hit the gym and climb on the elliptical the protagonist is closing in. I’ll be a blur to those next to me when I hit the exciting parts.
Thinking Out Loud ~ Watch Where You Point Your Finger
Who am I Really Judging?
Saint-Exupéry writes in The Little Prince of the Little Prince leaving his planet and visiting another planet governed by a king. The king makes the Little Prince the minister of justice. “Ah! But I have seen, said the little Prince who bent over to take a look at the other side of the planet. There is nobody there either.”
“So you will judge yourself, the king answered. It is the most difficult it is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed to judge yourself well, you are a truly wise man.”
NOTE: How easy it is for us to judge other people. We see this in social media. We see this on the news shows. We see it on sports broadcasts. We hear it on politically slanted podcasts. People are paid to judge other people. No one is paid to judge him or herself. When we look at ourselves in the clear light of day we may see things that we do not like. Often we will project what we don’t like in ourselves on others. It’s ironic that when we judge others we are often judging ourselves.
Thinking Out Loud ~ Setting Aside Biases
Looking Beyond Appearances
Saint-Exupéry in writes in The Little Prince, “I have serious reasons to believe that the planet where the little Prince came from is asteroid B-612. This asteroid was seen only once through the telescope, in 1909, by a Turkish astronomer. Then, he made a great demonstration of his discovery at an international Congress of astronomy. However, nobody believed him because of his costume. The grown-ups are like that. Fortunately, for the reputation of asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator imposed on his people on pain of death, to dress like the Europeans. The astronomer remade his demonstration in 1920, in a very elegant garment. And this time, everybody accepted his opinion.”
NOTE: It is easy to judge people based on their appearance. If someone appears to be different from us we often allow our biases to rule over our reason. When we look beyond appearances and into the person we find something all together different. We discover someone much like ourselves. It’s better to set aside judgments and listen. We may learn something.
What If . . .
What if I cut those close to me some slack and not rush to judgement? Would my relationship with them improve? I think it would improve by leaps and bounds. We don’t know everything that is going on in someone’s else’s life, all we catch are small snippets, never enough to make a judgement. We all need to be cut some slack. It’s hard being perfect (LOL).
