Guess Jeans and Benetton Sweaters

So a few days ago one of my Facebook friends wrote a post that was a blatant judgement on someone else, a stranger they witnessed in public, doing something that was quite mundane, but something that they would never do (apparently).  They ended their post with "who does that?"  The mundane thing in question was totally something I would do, given a similar situation.  The funny part about it was that the person making the judgement gets judged on a daily basis based on the lifestyle they lead.  She is confronted often, probably daily in social media, by people who think she is not only wrong, but damned to hell.  That's pretty intense, and it was very much a pot/kettle moment to me.

Humans are very judgmental by nature.  We feel entitled to our opinions, our preferences, and our statements, even going so far in America to protect them at the governmental level.  I get it -- I mean, on a very basic level, when we judge someone else's preference as sub-par to our own, we feel more right, superior even.  And when friends and family, whose approval we seek, actually validate our opinions, they become even more solidified.  So we must be right, right?

Here's the thing... although choices help make life interesting, and differing opinions/preferences do the same, we often allow them to serve to both group us and separate us from one-another.  Think of high school -- the ridiculous stuff that we allow to impact who we like and don't like... clothing labels, the kind of cars we drove (or didn't), music we listened to... and it continues today as adults, just on a different level.

What if we didn't judge one another's opinions, choices, preferences, etc?  What if, even when someone made a monumentally bad choice (in our humble opinion), we gave them the benefit of the doubt that they are doing the best they could at any given moment?  What if we truly did embrace and appreciate how different we all are, but how similar we all are, as well?  What if we're just all here to love each other and be the best version of ourselves possible?  Don't you think the world would be a very, very different place?  I don't think this is pie in the sky, either.  I really believe that this is a simple choice, and I've been trying to remind myself that if I am doing the best I can, others must be doing the same.  It doesn't always work, but with simple things like other people's choices in terms of clothing, music, art, and the plethora of ways they choose to express themselves, why expend that energy?

Why try to find ways to tear each other down?  There's plenty of room at the top for everyone.