Judgement

Well, I had promised a controversial blog for this week, but this may not be a controversial as I thought.  I am speaking about judging others.

So, let’s start with what I believe.  I do not believe that any of us on earth has the right to stand in judgement of another.  Having said that every country, every province and state and every city, town and county have their own documented laws and, therefore, have the right to judge people against those.  That’s not the kind of judgement I am referring to.

The judgement I am referring to is judging how others look or behave, especially judging things one has no control over. 

Probably everyone knows of ‘The Elephant man.’  We have preconceived ideas of what someone should look like. Joseph Merrick, known as ‘The Elephant Man,’ had no control over his disfiguration and so he was mocked and ridiculed (judged).  Most of the appearances we judge are not that severe, but most people seem to make fun of and even bully those who are not ‘perfect’ in their eyes.

We also seem to make fun of (judge) someone who is wearing something we do not ‘approve’ of.  In our eyes, we all have preconceived ideas of what is appropriate to wear and what is not.  We can dress in what we believe to be appropriate, but should not judge others who do not.

Weight is also something that seems to be judged.  Usually, we judge those who are overweight and not those who are underweight, but either way, it is a judgement.

We also judge behavior.  There are many behaviors that are rather universally understood to be inappropriate, but those are pretty much all covered by the laws of the land, such as pedophilia.  Other behaviors, such as whether or not someone can dance, or if you believe they embarrass you in public or hurt your feelings, we do judge in our own ways.  It is not appropriate to make fun of, or deliberately harm someone who behaves in a way that you don’t like.  Behaving inappropriately is a bit of a different thing.

We, at least to some extent, have the ability to include those in our lives that make us happy and avoid those who do not.  I suppose that is a judgement in a sense, but we are not passing sentence on them, at least.

At the end of our days, when we look back on our lives, God will help us to judge ourselves and we shall be the harshest judge of all.  Let us leave judgement until that time.

Las Vegas, Baby!

I missed last week’s blog because I was in Vegas, baby!  I had never been to Las Vegas before, although Cavan had been there many times for the Comdex conference, until Comdex went bankrupt.

I discovered Las Vegas to be not very handicapped friendly, although there are escalators and elevators on the street.  These are necessary because you cannot walk across The Strip, or many of the side streets, some of which are actually highways.  The elevators and escalators will take you to e pedestrian bridge, which will get you to the other side of the street.  There is still a lot of walking to get from place to place.

I should point out that there are taxis, of course, and also busses.  The busses don’t stop very often, so like the pedestrian bridges, there is quite a bit of walking to get to the bus stops and the bridges.

Now, despite my complaining, I did enjoy myself.  Because of all of the walking, I didn’t get to see as much as I might have liked, but also, there were quite a few things on hiatus, or shut down for one reason or another, anyway.

I especially enjoyed seeing the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.  Also, if you are planning to go, I recommend seeing the Mob Museum.  The food is much more expensive than I was expecting, but it was pretty good,

So, this is a short blog because I just got back at about midnight last night and I am still pretty tired.  I have to time adjust a bit, having lost three hours on the way back and I need to be ready to get up at 6:30am Monday morning for work!

I am planning another somewhat controversial blog for next week, though! 

Rather Controversial

I am going to tackle something rather controversial. Abortion.

Firstly let me say that I could never ever abort a child.  I have many reasons for that.  I have mentioned in at least a couple of my blogs that I am adopted, so I was an unwanted pregnancy, myself.  Five of my siblings are also adopted, so they were also unwanted pregnancies.  The possibility of adoption is one of my reasons for not feeling comfortable with abortion.

As an unwanted child, I look at things differently, I think.  I had an opportunity to be adopted into a wonderful family and like all families, we are not perfect, but we had food in our tummies and a roof over our head.  Some our clothes were hand-me-downs, but we had clothes and managed quite nicely.  I must say that, as a teacher and the sole income earner, I don’t know how Dad managed, but we were all raised to be happy, healthy, contributing members of society and are raising our own families.

Back to the topic of abortion.  As I said, I could not possibly conceive of doing it myself, but I think I lean on the side of pro choice.  I have seen too many children abused and damaged by single mothers and even two parent caregivers that I would rather see unwanted pregnancies turned into children given up for adoption, or terminated, than have them suffer physical or even emotional abuse, or equally wrong, neglect.

Now, as a God believing person, you might find this strange or even blasphemous, but I have difficulty believing that God would prefer to see a child abused or neglected, rather than having the child aborted, giving Him the chance to give that child to a loving family.  Does God make mistakes?  Not intentionally I’m sure, but perhaps He overestimates the strength of His children.  When you do not believe that you are strong enough for any challenge given to you by God, you will not be and those around you will suffer for it.

In recent years, there are fewer and fewer children given up for adoption.  This is a shame.  We have babies giving birth to babies.  Young mothers still in school, could give their baby to a family who is more emotionally and financially capable of raising a child.  I know that this is a very difficult decision, because I considered it myself, when I discovered that my husband was seeing someone else when I was pregnant.  I truly believed that a child had a better chance and better opportunities raised in a two parent family, but I also knew that I was financially able to manage it, although it was tough.  I was also emotionally able to raise my children and I proved myself wrong.  A single parent can raise a healthy and happy child and both of my daughters have made me proud and are successful, contributing members of society.

So, could I abort a child?  Never.  Do I believe that someone incapable of successfully raising a child should consider it?  I believe that adoption is a better option, but abortion may be the best way to save that child.  None of that even tackles the idea of a child that is to be born with any number of physical or neurological issues.  I would not wish those issues on any child or parent.  Give that soul an opportunity to be born into a healthy body.