“Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.”

“Don’t judge others.”

…

We have been given lots of advice about not judging others and yet, on a minute-by-minute basis, we are bombarded by calls for us to judge others from friends, acquaintances, the media, and the government. Much of this judgement is overt while quite often our being asked to agree with another’s opinion about someone or a group of people is disguised as a call to sympathize with our friends/government, etc.

So should we not judge? I think the complete abstinence from judgement is not only impossible, but at times ill-advised. So what then? How about a compromise? How about we judge only those with which we’ve had first-hand experience? In these situations, only our direct senses are influencing us. In these cases we also remove ourselves from being pawns to propaganda, ulterior motives, corruption, etc.

No absolutes! Huh? My readers can and always will find exceptions to anything written. So don’t bother looking for the one or few examples that contradict the wisdom of this idea. Analyze, think, discuss, even argue against this if you will, but honestly consider the overwhelming wisdom of this mode of operation — that judgements from first-hand experiences far outweigh the value of anything passed-on second-hand.

So…I dare you to reserve your opinion about something or someone for those times when the opinion is purely yours and not a regurgitation of someone else’s [well-crafted] story.