Today.  I was reminded yet again.  For what stands to be the thousandth time.  (It is a lesson in progress.)  That I do not know everyone’s story.  Nor do I know all the reasons why or for what reason people do the things they do.  And neither can I know all the minute and significant details in a person’s life that cause them to act in certain ways.  To exhibit certain behaviors.   To say and do the things they do.

So why do I…why do WE think we have the right to judge.

Collectively, we as human beings form opinions based on what WE would do in certain situations.  “Since X is doing this, they must be feeling this.”  Or, “Since Y did this, it must mean that they don’t like that.”  We try to play God, getting inside each other’s heads.

Reading each other’s minds.  Figuring each other out by comparing other people to the standards we have set for acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors.  Standards we have set for ourselves.  Rightly or wrongly.

And in doing such- in judging one another,  we not only discredit ourselves.  We do a disservice to each other.  Because people are more complicated, more intricate than all that.  We are so much more than someone else’s opinion of us.  Someone else’s judgment.   Someone else’s standards or convictions or beliefs or attitudes toward us.  We are more.  So much more than all that.

And whether we be Child, or Woman, or Man.  We are worthy.   Worthy of being understood.  Of being listened to.  Of being given the benefit of the doubt.

And whether we be Blue Collar, White Collar or No Collar.   We are valuable.  We are feelings, mind and Soul.  We are story.

Stories worth being told.

And whether I think I know your story really well.  Got it all figured out.  Or whether I could just care less.  Believing what I wish.  It still stands that a person’s story is worthy.  It is significant.  It is their history.  Past, present and future waiting to unfurl.

A story of great consequence in the history of that solitary soul.   Valuable.  It is gold.  Because a person’s story is full of layers.  Dimensions.  Depth. There is so much more than meets the eye.  We must remember this.  All is not what meets the eye.

It never is.

Everybody’s got a story.  It’s how we respect the story- how we value the story.   That makes all the difference.