“IN MY FRIEND, I FIND A SECOND SELF…” by Carol Knudsen\An Innate Judgment

Don’t ask me not to judge you—ask me to be flexible in my judging. Who am I to judge you? I, like you, am a co-existent being with a mind; who am I not to? It is as innate in my nature as it is in yours. The judgment will be made, the opinion will be formed, and the decisions will be analogous.

If you cannot choose your friends, you cannot define your character. The people with whom you choose to mingle, for whatever reason, and the people whom you choose to care about are the people who attract you—and like likes like. There is nothing closer to the truth than the saying show me who your friends are, so I can know who you are. Show me who you admire, so I can tell like whom you aspire to be. Show me who you wish to become, so I may learn of your future. Show me whom you empathize with so that I may learn of your past. Show me whom you adore today so I may realize yourself.

We judge people every single time we interact with them—is that person suitable for a partner in my company, in my class group project, in myromantic life? Is that person safe enough to sit next to in a deserted train station? Is that person trustworthy enough to befriend? Is that personfair enough to be my mentor? A judgment—and the judgment call that i sbirthed by it—isn’t set in stone, but it exists as surely as you and I.

~Angreek87