The source of so much of our unhappiness is the entrenched belief that we’re all choosing our behavior, and often choosing poorly. This belief is a stone in our shoe as we hobble through life judging everyone in sight.
We judge smokers for choosing to damage their lungs. We judge adulterers for choosing to destroy their families. We judge drug addicts for choosing to live in abandoned buildings and eat out of dumpsters. We judge distraught mothers for choosing to drown their children. We believe these people consciously chose tragedy over happiness -- of all the choices available to them, these miserable fates were the ones they really had their hearts set on.
Could any of us say for certain that had we been born with the same brains, the same upbringing, the same social environments of the people we are so quick to judge, that we wouldn't have behaved in the same exact way? Isn't this the essence of forgiveness?
posted on 04 November at 23:30
The source of so much of our unhappiness is the entrenched belief that we’re all choosing our behavior, and often choosing poorly. This belief is a stone in our shoe as we hobble through life judging everyone in sight.
We judge smokers for choosing to damage their lungs. We judge adulterers for choosing to destroy their families. We judge drug addicts for choosing to live in abandoned buildings and eat out of dumpsters. We judge distraught mothers for choosing to drown their children. We believe these people consciously chose tragedy over happiness -- of all the choices available to them, these miserable fates were the ones they really had their hearts set on.
Could any of us say for certain that had we been born with the same brains, the same upbringing, the same social environments of the people we are so quick to judge, that we wouldn't have behaved in the same exact way? Isn't this the essence of forgiveness?