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Oh, those lives of others. How empty our thoughts would be if we weren't able to fantasize about the lives of others. Our meat and drink, our sustenance, our comfort come from the hours we spend imagining the lives of others.
Who are these others? How can you even ask? Are you not a sentient being yourself? Well then, do you not notice others? They are everywhere you look. Some even share your home or your bed. They stand beside you on public transit. They walk ahead of you on the street. They live in the house next door or across the street. Some you never even see but you read of them, and that's enough to include them in your list.
Do you judge these others? You're durn tootin' you judge them! Before movies and TV, your only entertainment consisted of judging others. The problem was so bad they even had to issue a proclamation against it in the Bible: Judge not lest ye be judged. (And you can bet your last quarter that you are being judged. All the time. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.)
The lives of others are juicy. You don't really know anything about those lives, which is where your imagination comes in. You make things up to fill the lack of real knowledge, and as long as you're making it up you might as well make it good, depending on your style; some like salacious tidbits, while others might base their judgment on, say, dietary habits. Or, when it's a question of completely unknown others, like subway riders, the judging might be limited to fashion sins. Hair, say, or shoes. Too much skin showing. Those judgments are fleeting. The closer we get to home with the others, the deeper we can go. The lives of others reveal themselves in so many ways: their demeanor, friendliness, reliability, cleanliness, propriety, political views, aesthetics, landscaping. The opportunities for judging are endless, when we are considering the lives of others.
The next step in our awareness of the judging we do, of course, is to stop it. Just quit it. Cut it out. Stop imagining the lives of others because we just don't know enough to come to an informed opinion. Leave the poor people alone. Don't subject them to your amateur psychologizing. Live and let live. Remember that one? Tend to your own moutons. MYOB. Stop sticking your pointy nose into the precious lives of others.
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com
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