“Whenever you feel like criticizing someone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” { F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby }
It’s easy to criticize. It’s easy to judge. It’s easy to point fingers and lay blame. Super Easy. And since misery loves company, it’s easy to jump on the bandwagon when someone else starts the train. But it really gets us nowhere. It has us sitting on the sidelines, watching the game play out, sipping warm hot cocoa while the players exhaust themselves on the field. It’s easy to point fingers and contribute a lot of shoulda coulda wouldas, without doing anything.
It’s not so easy to engage less in that gossipy criticism, but it’s what I’m striving to do. Because it holds me back, holds me down, and does nothing to change anything. And it holds whoever I’m judging and criticizing down too. And if it’s holding me down, chances are it’s holding you down. Because if we’re judging are we helping? Are we trying to do what we can to uplift those around us, those in our lives? Not to sound all preachy, because that’s not who I am, but are we doing anything to offer good? And if we’re spending energy and breath on them, we consider them friends, right? When you stop and think, their situation could be ours. Because at one point in their lives, they couldn’t imagine their situation either. And we’re taught to live by the Golden Rule, so…
And like what Nick Carraway learned from his father, we’ve all had advantages. We may not always consider our lives easy, but if you’re reading this, you’re doing okay. Yes, we all have our battles we must fight and our obstacles we must overcome. But, we’re also all in the same boat, because it doesn’t take much for our lives to be turned upside down in the blink of an eye. When all is said and done, we’re all just trying to live our lives, doing the best we can to make it to tomorrow.
Leave a Reply