Cultivating Good Judgement

Judgment has a bad reputation these days. How often do you get told not to judge or "judge not lest ye be judged?" Our society has conditioned us against being perceived as "judgmental." I'm here to say it is not necessarily wrong to be judgmental.

Personally, I'd prefer to be someone of good judgment or even someone possessing judgment rather than being someone who lacks judgment. Judgment means one has a brain of one's own. You think, and you evaluate and make decisions. Far too often, people lump being critical or negative with judgment.

My Quest for Patience and Calm

My mind runs constantly. Nothing too important really; all that gets lost in the minutiae that litters my mind. I’m endlessly fascinated by fascinating things. What do I find fascinating? Quantum physics, nursing, health, nature, photography, religion, puns, spirituality, psychology, rhetoric, ethics, history, science, the universe, compassion, anger, emotions, people, art, plants, words, animals, rain, beaches, oceans….well you get the picture. There is so much in this big beautiful world to see and experience that it makes me sad and reluctant to have to go to sleep at night. In fact, it makes it a downright chore. Like most modern people I want things yesterday. I expect to sit down and read about the Crimean War or astrophysics and come away able to discuss the various aspects of each with perfect clarity.

My Ironic and Hypocritical Disillusion

Anyone who knows me knows my love-hate relationship with technology, particularly technology that allows one to multitask in an effort to get more done for whatever reason (competition, compulsion, boredom, etc.). I’m an old school fan of doing one thing at a time with undivided attention, but that’s another story.

My thoughts today are about technology in general and how we misuse that technology, especially social media technology. I’ll use Facebook as an example since I just logged off of it (don’t judge me!).

My understanding is that the original intent of Facebook (and subsequent social media and communication types like texting) was to keep friends better connected when life scatters them to wherever. The aim was to be a tool with which to augment our organic social interactions – that is social interactions arising from physical connections. Unfortunately, these tools are being misused and have ended up substituting or, worse, replacing our organic social interactions. Further, technology such as smart phones and texting are deposing our genuinely organic social exchanges.

Multitasking is a Myth

Ours has become a society of multitaskers under the delusion that they are completing more and becoming more successful. The image of the multitasker is a memorable one: frazzles, distracted, tired, and detached. Their accessories include cell phone, lists, pens, datebooks, and coffee. They believe they get more done in a day than most people accomplish all week, but is that really the case?

Are Kids Today Less Resilient than their Parents?

A quick glance at headlines on any given day lends credence to the belief that children today are less resilient than previous generations. The headlines tell stories of kids who are bullied to the point of suicide, smoking and drinking whatever they can get their hands on, and behaving in all sorts of unbecoming ways. The more notorious headlines reflect the hatred and disillusion these kids have toward society, so much so that they choose the path of mass murder.