Not being criminals doesn't make us better than them

It so often happens that people judge you by your appearance or even by considering things that others have said about you as being true. So many times in these situations you'd wish they would try to pay attention to your character, to your actions and establish their praise or criticism according to these more important traits that define a person.

But what of those people whose actions define them as being reckless or inconsiderate or even evil?... What about a thief?... you see a news on TV showing a thief getting caught and you're inclined to say or think “I hope he gets what he deserves, I hope he stays in prison for a long time”. Or what about a more evil person?... a criminal... Most of us consider killing a deed which is much worse than stealing... And we so often think that a criminal deserves to die himself in order to pay for his crime(s). It's odd that we never stop to think about the punishment for our actions...

It happens sometimes that we regret wrong judging a person, but almost never we regret judging that person at all. It doesn't matter if it's a grave or a trivial issue, we just never think of our right to judge somebody else. Better said, we don't realize or accept that we don't have that right. Just as we don't have any rights over someone else's life, we also have no right to judge that person. It would be nice if we remembered that at least from time to time...

Right or Wrong

“People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than for being right.” (Joanne Kathleen Rowling)

How strange it is?... and why?

… because it's much easier to accept that others might be wrong. This automatically gives us a feeling that we are better, that we are at least a little bit right – even if this is rarely true (someone else being wrong does not necessarily make us right). When someone makes a mistake, we are quickly in judging him and labeling him as inferior and that gives us such a feeling of satisfaction... we are so foolish not to realize our own infatuation. We are so insignificant and yet we think we are so important, we are so powerless and yet we feel we ought to be the rulers of everything around, we know so little and yet we claim to be the smartest...

Forgiving others for being wrong gives us the chance to prove this superiority we have, to show our so-called mercy, but in fact we so often don't even understand the meaning of forgiveness and sympathy. We long to have such a chance, because it makes us look good in front of everyone, but we have no idea that true mercy doesn't need approval, nor recognition from anyone else.

These “values” would be demolished in a second if we had to accept that our reasoning is not the (only) right one. It's even harder to admit that we are capable of making mistakes, that we are not perfect and that what we say doesn't necessarily hold in any situation. One of the greatest values one can have is to know that acknowledging his mistakes and trying to rectify them is more important than trying to prove he's always right.

… and why not... we can admit from time to time that it is indeed difficult to show our kindest nature when no one else is watching...