Sunday, December 7, 2008

OK class .. this week..

So just for fun every week I am going to focus on something new. This week is a doozy.

Can you disagree, and I mean REALLY disagree, with someone and still not judge them? We know that judging other people is wrong. But it seems pretty tough to think someone is fundamentally wrong, yet not judge or feel superior to them. I recently figured out that you can forgive someone yet still be angry with them, so perhaps the same philosophy applies. What do you think?

2 comments:

Tex said...

I think you can...in fact I think we have to. There are lots of people out there that are completely wrong (at least when you compare their opinion to mine at least) but I still have to understand that an opinion (on anything really) is not WHO they are. It is what they think/believe about a particular issue. And as a very wise friend of mine once said, "a point of view is simply a view from a point." And we all stand at different points. And we all traveled different paths to get to those points. (well, when Ferf gets really amorous, we might "stand" in the same point..for a little while anyways)

That being said, one of the most difficult things we can attempt in our life is to try and understand. This is especially difficult when the person we are trying to understand has no desire to understand us. That is when it is useful to quote the prophet Ferris Bueller, "It's understanding that makes it possible for people like us to tolerate a person like yourself." But then he was Abe Froman the sausage king of Chicago, and alas, the rest of us are merely human.

Sorry, I got lost on a rabbit trail there. My point is simply that someone can be wrong, but that in no way implies that we are superior to them. In fact, that one issue might be the only thing we are better than them at. (unless of course we are better than them at everything, in which case you just have to have some grace for them - which can lean towards pity, but you have to be vigilant to ensure that it doesn't totally go there).

Superiority might be one of the most subjective things we could measure, so I think our best bet is to keep that tag as something we apply to others. Let them apply it to us.

Just make sure it isn't the guy that's fundamentally wrong applying it to you...

Susan Knight said...

.. and BOOM there it is.

"Superiority might be one of the most subjective things we could measure, so I think our best bet is to keep that tag as something we apply to others. Let them apply it to us."

That is what I was looking for. AMAZING how a simple shift can clear up a jumble of thought!

I'm still working on the "judging" business but that simply concept is helping me get closer! ty :)