We never know the quality of someone else’s life, though we seldom resist the temptation to assume and pass judgement.
—Tami Hoag
How true!
January 24, 2016
How True
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now you’re getting personal! LOL.
but seriously.
my whole post yesterday was a judgment about hundreds of people i didn’t even know!
it’s a terrible habit. and a good one to break. NOW. this year.
i’m already working on it! XO
Actually I wasn’t thinking of you at all. 🙂
I’ve been thinking of your a lot, of course, just not when I was writing this post. 🙂
i know what you’re saying…
but I HAVE been thinking about it regarding myself.
and the quote just seemed to fit that thinking for me!
it’s a struggle. not so much on an individual basis with people…
but with the actions of large groups! LOLOL
you’re a dear. 🙂
Good advice to remember and follow!
Yes. 🙂
was the quote about real-time or on-line friends!
I think it applies to both.
Great quote worth sharing and using often.
I’m sure I will use it in the future.
Very true. It’s so tempting to think we know more about someone else’s life than they do. And we’re usually totally wrong. People make mistaken assumptions about me over and over.
I know. I’m thinking of one person in particular.
Another line I love is, “X gets a lot of exercise jumping to conclusions and flying off the handle.”
After a lifetime of caring a bit too much about the impression others have of me, I have come to the conclusion that I will adopt that often-given aphorism that it’s none of my business what opinion others form of me. Somehow, especially with reading all the rancor in this year’s election cycle, that doesn’t stop me from forming opinions about others’ lives and beliefs, especially their lack of caring and empathy for others. Thanks for the reminder to stop that.
Yes, people are going to believe what they want to believe, even if their judgments are mostly coming from themselves and don’t have much to do with the person they think they’re seeing. Our politics is so polarized because it’s so much easier to call people names than to try to understand them and look for win-win solutions.
I know a lot of people, both in my personal life and work, who are very ready to assume they know what someone else has experienced and felt.
Even today I saw it.
Here’s a horrible example.
Working where I do, we all see death on a daily basis. And we see dead animal bodies and we send some of the bigger ones to a crematorium to be cremated.
The big dogs are placed in heavy bags until they can be picked up and taken.
When I first started this job, the sight of death jarred me to the core.
Even now, especially when I know them, it hurts my heart.
But… it’s become an almost daily occurrence and a person can get a little bit numb to it. Some times there will be several “bags” and we have to step over and around them and I was just thinking to myself how we all don’t even let it register in our brains, what is inside those bags.
Today, someone called to let us know their dog had passed at home.
They didn’t know what to do, so the receptionists walked them through it.
They called back again, with another question and then later with a third.
The receptionists were polite but after hanging up, they shook their heads and couldn’t understand why this person kept calling.
I happened to me standing there and I said “Maybe this is their first loss. I mean, maybe it’s the first pet that they’ve lost and they are having a hard time handling the death”.
They looked at me and didn’t say anything.
… what I’m trying to say is, sometimes we don’t have a clue what other people are feeling. But sometimes we do, but we’ve forgotten.
We forget those feelings.
We forget so much.
We get in a hurry, we have our own problems to worry about and our patience gets thin.
It’s so sad, that people just prefer to be annoyed and critical rather than take a moment to stop, and feel, and have some empathy.
Yep.
🙁
your last sentence just says it all.
again.
bless people like you. and others who work with those dear beings.
it takes a certain special kind of inner strength.
and YOU have it. XOXOXO
If the receptionists were polite that was at least something. But I agree they lost touch with how it feels when a loved one dies. Thanks for the example.