Righteous judgement
“Judge not lest you be judged . . . with the measure you use, it shall be measured back to you.” The Bible
American actor Johnny Depp says, “If there’s any message to my work, it is ultimately that it’s OK to be different, that it’s good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color.”
My friend Anna, in a time when most families were racially and ethnically homogenous, or as some might call “white bread”, had a family that was more like a fruit bowl. Her mother was Italian; her father half Dutch, half Alsatian. Her step grandfather was Jamaican and British; half his family looked Caucasian; half black. Her sister’s husband was from Puerto Rico.
From her mother, Anna learned to cook well; she also inherited the Italian passion for singing and life. From her father, once road manager for an African-American singing group, she learned appreciation for other racial and ethnic groups. This was reinforced by her Jamaican step grandfather, who escorted her to singing lessons and then to great movies featuring Lena Horne and other black performers. From her Dutch grandmother, she learned organization and even more tolerance. When the black singers her father managed were not permitted to register in a hotel, her Dutch grandmother made room for them in her home. From her sister, she saw that love needn’t jump fences built with prejudice.
Her fruit bowl family gave her three most important life skills; they shaped her work and her life. What were they? Passion, curiosity and an ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere.
Meditation for the Day
Make no judgments where you have no compassion. Anne McCaffrey
Action for the Day
Today and tomorrow, I will allow my natural curiosity about others help me overcome any intolerances I may have learned along the way. Today, I won’t judge anyone until I have walked in their shoes for three weeks.
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