Sunday, March 14, 2004
Sitting in Judgement
I got an interesting chain-mail type email the other day.
"If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?"
Leaving aside the conscience vote on abortion, if one looked at this question as asking would you believe the woman would be better off without this new baby, I believe most of us would have to answer, 'yes'.
The rider to the question was, if you answered 'yes', you just killed Beethoven.
Other interesting scenarios questioned seemingly common-sense judgements in much the same way.
I must confess, I often leap to judgement. My own paranoia kicks in and I attribute bad motives to sometimes innocent actions. This person is stupid because they don't come to the same conclusion as me; that person has bad taste in clothes, home decoration, friends or partner. This person spends money in unsuitable ways, that one doesn't have integrity, is a user or manipulator.
Often my judgement is clouded by my own insecurities or inability to understand all the ramifications of the situation. I just think I know best but this silly little email made me take stock and vow to be kinder, to allow that each person is entitled to their own opinions and ways of behaving and it is not up to me to judge them.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to try to see things from the other guy's point of view. But I'm sure that trying to do so will make me a better person.
"If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?"
Leaving aside the conscience vote on abortion, if one looked at this question as asking would you believe the woman would be better off without this new baby, I believe most of us would have to answer, 'yes'.
The rider to the question was, if you answered 'yes', you just killed Beethoven.
Other interesting scenarios questioned seemingly common-sense judgements in much the same way.
I must confess, I often leap to judgement. My own paranoia kicks in and I attribute bad motives to sometimes innocent actions. This person is stupid because they don't come to the same conclusion as me; that person has bad taste in clothes, home decoration, friends or partner. This person spends money in unsuitable ways, that one doesn't have integrity, is a user or manipulator.
Often my judgement is clouded by my own insecurities or inability to understand all the ramifications of the situation. I just think I know best but this silly little email made me take stock and vow to be kinder, to allow that each person is entitled to their own opinions and ways of behaving and it is not up to me to judge them.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to try to see things from the other guy's point of view. But I'm sure that trying to do so will make me a better person.
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