Judgments and People

So I'm going to split this blog into two sections. First, my analysis of my most recent Lost viewings (my apologies to non Lost fans), which will lead directly into some observations I have about judgments I tend to make.

As far as Lost is concerned, there's some interesting stuff going on. Staying on the same theme I've been on in relation to this show, I want to talk about characters. Two characters specifically. The first is Sawyer. He's rude, haughty, self-serving, callous, and really fit. He's a fascinating character, and his back story includes a lot of stuff that would be a total plot give away if you haven't seen the show. He's not a likable character, but I like him. I can't stand him, but I like him. I know that doesn't make any sense, but it has to do with his character. A few episodes ago he won major points when he told another character something about his estranged father that meant a lot to the other guy. He didn't have to do that, and it didn't benefit him in any way, so that was out of character for him. He also got shot trying to protect someone else. So, I like him. As a character. He's very interesting to me. Now, there's a new character that's been introduced named Anna Lucia. I can't stand her. She seems to have a permanent look of scorn fixed to her face, and she acts like she's been appointed dictator for life. I really detest her. Plus she just murdered a character that was slowly growing on me. But for all I know, I might be making a pre-judgment of someone I'll grow to like. For instance, Locke is growing on me quite a bit, even though from the beginning he's given me the creeps. Its making judgments of people.

Which leads me to my second thought for tonight. I tend to judge people. I've gotten better about not blurting out my judgments, but I still think it. I heard a woman use a double negative several times when speaking to her children the other day, and I made a judgment about her skills in the English language. I could have been spot on there, I don't know, but the point is that I formed an opinion about this woman with no other knowledge about her. Which is wrong. Usually my problem has more to do with people's media decisions. There's a girl I know in my youth group who I alternate between wanted to throw something at her to feeling really sad for her. I get increasingly frustrated whenever I get into a conversation with her, and I have trouble suppressing that. Lately I've been checking that a lot better, but it's really hard. She and I used to be friends, but one of her very poor decisions led to us being very estranged, and it's something she never realized. Which is a big part of why she irritates me. She has no standards regarding what she reads, watches, or listens to, and she doesn't realize that there's anything wrong with that. Now this is what I've been working on. It's not my job to give her my standards. I'm not perfect, I watch movies with bad content sometimes (Inception was brilliant by the way, but the language was bad. Same thing with 2012.). So why do I am I so judgmental of her? Once I catch myself, I can reevaluate where my heart is and accordingly fix my attitude towards her. I still think she's making horrible decisions, and I feel really sad for her, but I'm learning that it is not my job to tell her what she should be doing, it's God's job. So I need to step back and let him fix both of us.