just things???
As I was thinking about my last post (the one next in line) I had to smile at myself since I fell into one of the habits that I often hate when I either read some article or am hearing a homily.....it is when I feel that the author or speaker should be speaking about him or herself .....starts bringing everyone else in by bringing in the "we's"; you know "we do this" or "we do that" kind of thing. Here I was talking to myself about not seeing what is simply in front of me and I had to bring in just about everybody else in the whole world; I guess I am not too comfortable with my being out of touch with life so often and needed some company. I suppose that is unfair since I am sure that there are many people, perhaps the majority who do a much better job at living fully and being in the moment than I do.
It really is impossible to 'really' judge someone else. I suppose I can look at certain actions that another person does, or perhaps the way that someone speakes or treats others and come up with some kind of judgment on them but it would not be one that would carry much weight at least as far as I can see. Each person carries within themselves years of history that incorporates not only their upbringing but all the joys and sorrows, the betrayals, losses as well as the loves that they have experienced; that is a lot of material to go thru and I suppose I would have to go thru all of it before I could come up with a judgment that just might be close to the truth.
One of the reasons I have so much trouble communicating with others is that my life experiences are so unique and complex (the same as everyone elses) and the way I process that information is what makes it hard at least for me to get my point across; sort of like people can think they are truly communicating but in reality are talking about apples and oranges. That is why people are so wonderful and should be loved and cherished; each is a whole universe of information that only need the right questions to draw much of it out.
Once in the airport I was laid over for four hours and during that time I had the luck of meeting a very nice little old lady who lived in the deep south and lived in a trailer park. We sat and talked for about three of the four hours and I was amazed at her life experiences, her wisdom and the depth of her faith in God. She was not highly educated and was very ordinary looking but when I talked to her I found that there was nothing ordinary about her. When we parted she told me that she never shared that much before and said that it was the questions that I asked her that allowed her to get in touch with her life and what she had learned in a way she had never done before or even knew that she could do it. She had it, and lived it but just never spoke it. Now I guess if I missed the opportunity to really try to get to know her I would be the poorer for it. Just think the world is full of people like her; the richness of her inner life is common in the fact that each person most likely has just as much richness to share as she did, to bad that I often pass others in life and never spend the time needed to ask the right question; or perhaps I don't give others the chance to ask me the right questions either.
Jesus stated that whatever we do to the least we do to him; now that is a very interesting thought and I think I will try to dwell on that in my next post.
peace
mitch