A Haiku - Judging Others And More

Your face, dress, walk, speech

Say things about you I sense.

The real you? Unknown

A Haiku - Law

Bend, twist, wink at law,

And become the law yourself.

More the pity then.

A Haiku - Marriage

Rings and things don't count,

Marriage ceremony doesn't,

Unless you mean it.

Quote: "If I am doing all the good things I am capable of doing, I will have no time to do anything else."

Manolie N. Jasper

Judging Others

There are times, even professions, which require making quick judgements, such as situations soldiers and policemen face, sometimes daily.

For the rest of us on normal days such judgements are not usually necessary. On such days we should not rush to judge others.

If you have been wrongfully judged, and which of us has not been, you know what a serious mistake hasty judging can be.

Even in conversation, you will note that some people presume what you are going to say even before you have finished your sentence.

Here are several cautions from classic thoughts and persons you may recognize:

Mother Theresa is quoted as having said that "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

Jesus is quoted as having said: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" and also as having said: "Judge not according to the appearance."

James, an apostle of Jesus, is said to have taught that a person who seems to be religious but can't control their tongue, at the same time deceiving their own heart, that person's religious exercise is in vain.

This little true story on judging others illustrates the dangers of judging, and how easily it can stand in the way of loving others:

Two men, unshaven, poorly dressed, and smelling of sweat and worse, came into a church service and seated themselves beside other worshipers, some of whom moved away in apparent disgust. At the end of the service another worshiper approached the men and welcomed the strangers. Surprised, the strangers asked the man, "Aren't you offended by our appearance here today?" The man replied, "No. Should I be? You are always welcome here."

The two men then confessed that their dress and appearance, even their apparent lack of hygiene was a sham. They had chosen to go to several different churches to see where, even appearing as they had at this service, they might be accepted as Jesus would have accepted them, for it would be at that church where they would choose to worship and lend their generous financial support to worthy projects to aid the poor and needy.

Admittedly this is an unusual example, but ask yourself what your own reaction might have been, or will be, should someone described as these two were, should approach you. Your thinking about such a situation will help you to understand how quickly you might judge someone else without really knowing them.

Law

In the second haiku, on how some may hold "the letter of the law" in some contempt, even a direct law such as "STOP", the assertion is made that doing so puts such persons "outside" the law, a law unto themselves, making them modern day outlaws.

We know what tragically happens so often when stop signs are ignored in contempt of the common good they offer.

Equally importantly, the bending of laws, the twisting of laws to a particular person's or group's advantage, is also done in contempt of the common good they are meant to serve. The tobacco industry made itself a classic example of such selfishness in years past, killing and sickening far more people than random contempt for stop signs has since the invention of automobiles, trucks, and buses. And, this also illustrates the reality that it is not always those outlaws who pay the price for their disobedience, gangs and organized crime being other examples of such outlaws.

Our right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is at stake when laws are only winked at, are twisted and bent by any of us. There is also the danger that a little bend can take any of us down the wrong road.

Marriage

On the subject of marriage, it appears the subject is increasingly unpopular. The rate of divorce bears that out, and the rate of common law marriages (if such relationships last that long) attests to a worthy institution trending toward its demise, or at least its reduced role in public morality.

Can we blame the media? Marriage jokes have probably existed as long as marriages have; and some marriages are a joke, entered into lightly, even for the sake of publicity with no commitment to make the marriage last. In fact, marriages that last in Hollywood are considered newsworthy, but are given far less prominence than the second, third, etc., marriages of serial brides and grooms.

Society has generally condemned polygamy, yet it tolerates men and women who have made a similar mockery of monogamy on the basis that "one spouse at a time" (no matter how many times) is legal, even reason to celebrate (that's "celebrate" definitely not "celibate".)

Marriage has been, and by rights should still be, a solemn commitment to a lasting love and sacrifice of each spouse for the other....not to one spouse and then another and another, and.... .

Christian marriage is defined as "each for the other, and both for God." I suspect other religions would define it in much the same way, although I hold some personal reservations about any religious marriage in which divorce is as simple as saying "I divorce thee" three times, and also allows for having three wives at the same time.

© 2014 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.