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Monday 22 July 2019

DIARY OF BEING JUDGEMENTAL BY FIONA CUMMINGS


Hello Bloggets. A lovely reader has asked me to write about the subject that I am ending my blog on today, so, that to come!

 

Right now, I’m sitting in my back garden. It’s the strangest day with regards to the weather. It’s meant to get to end 20’s in temperature today, and it is really warm. But it’s so very windy. And seems to be dull. I’m sitting here at my table in our garden and the wind is quite boisterous. My hair is blowing everywhere all over my face, it’s a good job I don’t need to see to type. It’s like a storm brewing.  But the heat in the wind is really odd. I almost love it. I love the difference in how it feels. Normally when it’s hot, it’s really warm sometimes uncomfortable but this breeze is so refreshing in a really odd way. I say odd because it feels as if we are on another planet. This doesn’t feel like any other summer day I have experienced in England!

 

The birds that are normally muffled by the traffic are silenced. Of course, the traffic isn’t. unfortunately. It will be weird to think in a few years’ time, what our busy road will sound like once the cars are electric? Hub wants to look at another house soon, only because of the road outside our back garden. But what if we move and the road becomes silenced?  I must say yesterday when we were sitting in our garden, we couldn’t hardly hear each other talk it was that bad. On a Sunday? But we raised our voices and did manage to have some lovely conversations.

 

The fragrances in my garden are so nice the roses my Mum in law planted for us are delightfully in bloom. They have a sweet smell and there is another shrub that smells of pepper but in a nice way. And there are shrubs that smell of lemon. My lavender hasn’t come out this year but it may be too early for it. What would I know, I’m so far from gardener friendly? Well, I am friends with gardeners, but I’m not the gardens friend as I am totally useless when it comes to slugs, worms, spiders and wasps. Oh, sorry, apple trees, shrubs and beautiful flowers….

 

Though my in door plants are coming on so well. Mind you, my tomato plants should run in competitions. No, not run away, but run to the finish line for best well, em, height? Regards to tomatoes well, let’s say, thank goodness for grocery stores!

 

And now onto the subject I have been asked to write about by my lovely lady from America. Judgement. Not in the biblical way, but in life today. What is judgement? And are you judgemental? If you are then do you mind when others are being judgemental towards you? Are there any people who have never or are not judgemental? Surely everyone is to a certain extent? Isn’t being judgmental just having an opinion? As long as you are not nasty about it or what I call snooty. I know of people who forget their roots and look down at people just because they can’t afford things but those people who look down towards others, should remember when they were in that situation.

 

When we make judgements towards others that is in a negative way that have consequences that will make other people feel really sad, low or make them lack in confidence. That isn’t a good way to be judgemental, or, are there no ways to put the words good and judgemental together?

 

I judge people who take drugs. I try to have an open mind and ask why they got into that situation, but in most cases I try to avoid those people, but I do have friends who are so lovely, who I care about, who do dabble. I have had to put their habits to the back of my mind as to lose them as a friend would be a negative thing, but if I knew they used drugs before I got to know them, I would have ran, avoided them. I judge people who swear in every situation no matter who is there to listen. I class them as uneducated. To swear among friends who share the language, fine, but to swear in front of children or respectable people who obviously don’t swear, well that to me is just ignorant and bad manners. I feel if you don’t know how to talk without using bad words, then you are not clever enough for me to spend time chatting to you. So, I’m judgemental, but rather than cause a fuss, I will just walk away or blank their words and make up my own opinion.

 

 If you were talking to a fifteen-year-old who confided in you they had lost their virginity to a much older person, personally I wouldn’t want to scare them away. If they have been braved enough if they have trusted me enough to confide in me, then I wouldn’t want to scare them away, so, how would I handle that situation? What words would I use and try to avoid?

“It seems your impulsivity may have got the better of you, do you think a part of you will regret that later?”” that is kind of letting that person know that you personally don’t agree with what they did. So, how could we put this in a better way?

“And how did that make you feel?”” and then you have to be ready for the answer. Be prepared to be shocked and then not to move your face…. that is the tough task not showing any emotion. Oh, my reminds me of when I studied, we were put in situations where by we were in a room with other students. I was told things that repulsed me. But my face had to remain still. Sadly, I can’t do that with my Son, the slightest movement of my eyes or mouth, can let him into my mind. Or could that be we are so close he reads me? For those who are blind, how do we know about facial expressions? How do we learn them? It’s very easy for a person who has never had sight to look so sad. Because we know what faces look like, to quotes look normal, people who have or had, sight, act without realising. Because I guess we don’t want to be judged.

 

At a basic semantic level, making judgements is being judgemental! How do we know how to make constructive as opposed to problematic judgements?

 

The empathy dynamic approach to each personality, is important. It’s crucial you know where they are coming from, their perspective, history and experiences that went into their current situation. We are told to judge the sin, and not the sinner. Gosh, for me this is difficult. I admire those who can do that, but to create a sin, you have to be a sinner and to be a sinner, surely that makes you them, a bad person? To be sinful isn’t a good feature. And to say not to blame the sinner is to me an impossible act. It’s like a car that crashes into someone and kills them, of course the car was the reason that person died but it was the driver who directed the car. It is the sinner who directs the act of the sin!

 

I was also asked are people who are blind able to be judgemental? Well I think I have answered that one and are we as people who are blind judged? Gosh yes. We are judged by everyone. Family friends well, who we thought and think are friends, not true friends. Colleagues and strangers.   

 

How do we as people without vision judge? We can’t see people. But we hear them. We learn of their lifestyle. We can’t see what they area wearing or their hairstyle but somehow, we feel what they wear, their shoes, as they pass us their long hair or not so long hair may touch our arm for example. What perfume aftershave they wear and always there are sighted people who will tell us what people look like and for those who have never been able to see, we judge others words descriptions of others by the language we know. But words don’t paint visual pictures to people who have never had sight, but our brains know negative words.

 

To live in a world where people who judge in a negative way don’t exist well in a way that hurt others, would be lovely. Sometimes to judge is to have an opinion. But sometimes we need to keep our judgements to ourselves, I think. But there again, wouldn’t life be boring if we were all sweetness and light?

 

For me personally, I love and I’m kind to those who deserve it. I would do anything for those good people. So, am I judgemental? Heck, yes.

 

  

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