About My Shoes - Thoughts On Judgement

I'd like to start today's post with a quote which some of you probably know from your school days.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” - Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Okay maybe you can already guess that this won't be a post on beauty or fashion related things and except for the quote it also won't involve books. As it says in the title I will share my thoughts on judgment and also share some of my experiences with it. I learned a lot about this subject during high school and most of it the hard way. On one hand I felt what it's like to be judged and I also experienced what happens if you do it to other people. In fact I used to be a massive judger and it wasn't until last year that I realized how many options I closed the door on by assuming things.

Well to begin with I should probably explain why I mentioned my shoes in the title. This is also an example of how I've personally experienced judgment.

Long story short: I twisted my ankle quite badly last February but didn't really realize how badly until the summer when my ankle still stung occasionally. I figured that the main reason for the slow healing process might be my choice of shoes and so I went out to buy myself some "proper shoes" -> no heels, no fancy looks just normal trainers (aka bright blue Nikes) which could support my foot a bit. It actually helped and I've been mostly wearing them, even as we got to winter. 

Now of course the bright color and the general appearance of the shoes often interferes with my outfit and they also don't look winter approved. This caused some people to believe that they are now allowed to judge, gossip about my outfit and point out my shoes.  

But NO! That's not okay! People should NEVER judge others! This is because we do NOT know what the other person’s motive for a certain action or decision is, just as these people couldn't tell that my main reason for wearing the Nikes is not fashion sense or anything like that but doing something nice for my feet. And there is no way for us to know what is going on inside another person except if we climb into their skin just as Harper Lee describes it. So how can we judge someone based on what WE ASSUME might be going on in their brain? Yeah right we can't. Still we all do it but you now know why we shouldn't.

So for the year 2014 and all years that will follow I will try to withhold my judgment on people and instead try to get to know and understand them and I hope that some of you who read this might be inspired to do the same.  

My shoes as I've been talking about them a lot in this post :P