Meditation for March 1st
Judgment
We are born with certain instincts that help us survive – if we were hunter-gatherers ten thousand years ago. These instincts are still helpful today, but if used moderately. One of these instincts is being judgmental. We sometimes need to listen to that voice in our head that suggests that the person before us is a creep and a murderer, so we should walk away, or does that put down the creep, a murderer, so I should be as nice as possible? We rely on judgment to help us make those kinds of decisions.
Now that we aren’t wearing woolly mammoth shirts and wolf pants looking for roots and berries, we are in a society where some people want us to remove judgment altogether from our instinctual arsenal, while others feel like a thick wall of judgment will keep them safe from “them”. How do we use judgment responsibly? Where is that line where our judgment is right and not racist or stereotyping?
Be judgmental. This is what the Gods gave us to help us avoid traps. People want to get ahead and will do anything to do that. Some will even hurt others, so our judgment will pick out those people and stay clear of them altogether.
There is a reason for stereotypes. These are either bashful truths, full truths, or just glaring defects in a type of person, so we try to ignore them. Butis is what protecting ourselves is: knowing the signs of danger. A man in a blue suit is going to be safe most of the time, and a woman with hoop earrings will fucking cut you most of the time. Don’t get into an Uber with a woman wearing hoop earrings.
People who use Uber are like poor people who vote for Trump; they vote emotionally instead of understanding that this is the worst thing for them, creating a land owner serf relationship that harkens back to Medevil times and because it’s so convieneint, jsut slightly more convenient than a taxi, we are allowing labor laws and the relationship between the ‘owners’ and the workers to deterioate, so don’t ever use Uber. It is amazing what hoseshit people will accept for the sake of convenience without considering the consequences.
Judge others if you want to survive. I don’t mean just not being murdered, but not being taken advantage of, ripped off, or having your emotional strings played, and you end up hurt and crying and posting vague emo shit on Facebook and hating all red red-heads named Greg. You also can’t listen to the Arctic Monkeys because you both liked them. If you had listened to your judgment that this dude named Greg seemed a little too immature working as a bar back at that metal bar in NE Portland, and moved there from Asheville, NC, via Austin. You should have seen that he wasn’t ready for commitment by the way he moved into your place a week after you guys hooked up. You should have seen the red flags when he played hours of Fallout, went to bars, played Magic: The Gathering, and you were never invited. You might have noticed he liked to smoke a lot of pot and stare at the TV, no matter what was on, but loved cooking shows the best. Then he left you and, two days later, hooked up with your coworker Courtney, and they post such cuuuute pics of them doing all the stuff he never wanted to do with you. Being judgmental would have saved you a lot of grief.
Prayer
Veronica the Brunette,
How do I tell if this is a racist Skinhead?
Or not a racist skinhead?
They look exactly the same.
The one guy who dresses like this,
Who has spent his entire life making this his personality,
Can tell,
But I can’t.
Why would I take a chance,
On looking racist?
Tall boots,
Shaved head,
Flight jacket,
Suspenders,
Collared shirt,
And you want me to be able to tell,
Because of some different colors?
I can’t tell,
And I’m not sticking around to find out.
Only skinheads know the difference between each other,
And the rest of us just won’t be comfortable with either one.
Amen
Craft
Read about other cultures that are not yours. Find one that you really like. Study that culture with seriousness. Now that you know as much about that culture as you possibly can, adapt that culture to yours.
Some of my favorites to adapt are:
Native American – but I mix up the many different beliefs and rituals of all the different tribes into one.
Hindu – Taking Yoga and adapting the Hindu religion is really fun, and white girls who wear Saris are hot.
Buddhism – This is the easiest one to adopt because most people make it up as they go.
Japanese – Answer your front door in a kimono and politely ask them to remove their shoes, as water is dripping from a bamboo fountain. Make sure you have those paper screens everywhere, and you cook sushi primarily. Maybe have a ponytail or bun. Eat exclusively with chopsticks, even with soup.
Portland – Wear flannels, jeans, and a stocking cap. It looks like you work really hard, but your industry was shipped overseas, so there are no jobs like that anymore. People are moving there, taking advantage of the low cost of living, and acting like they can be a total bozo bum and make hobbies the main thing they do. At the same time, you watch Portland turn into a circus of passive-aggressive terrible drivers who complain about drivers, who work in the service industry while single handedly keeping the service industry alive by only eating and drinking out except Mondays when you drink at the park like a teenager with glow in the dark hula hoops and playing dodge ball because Portland is now never-never land and everyone wants to be Peter Pan.
Goal
Be judgmental. It’s okay if you are wrong as long as you are safe. Being judgmental might be the only thing standing between you and serious injury. You might not know that the particular snake you screamed at and chopped the head off was not venomous; it could have been. You need to be okay with hurting other people’s feelings when you need to say no to them. You don’t have to hang out with anyone you don’t feel safe with, even if there is no proof at all. Trust that instinct. It might not be your gut telling you this person is awful; it might be God speaking through you.
Hate is safe.