This weekend I went to visit friends in Athens, Ohio for a weekend. I always get very excited while I’m driving down in anticipation of seeing all of them. They live together in a large house, and seeing the smiles on their faces when I reach their place is the best. Thinking about this made me wonder what it is that excites me so much about visiting them in Athens. While I love all of them very dearly, it is something much more behind all of it that makes me love going to see them.

When I enter the campus of Ohio University, it is impossible not to feel the difference. This small town of Athens is somehow able to shut itself out from the outside world in a way. Athens to me has an air about it that screams freedom, originality, and most of all, a judgement-free place to be. This aspect of Athens is one of my favorite things about visiting for a weekend. A large majority of the people you meet in Athens, Ohio will be more than willing to talk to you, even if they don’t know you, offer a helping hand if you need it and point you in the direction you are seeking. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t wearing shoes, have a purple wig on, or aren’t wearing a shirt.

I say all of this as a precursor to what I want to talk about: judgement.

This word has plagued me and caused a tremendous amount of resentment in my own heart. This is coming from someone who used to come from a small town and be the one casting a disapproving glance or a pointed finger, to finally leaving and realizing just how awful I used to be about judging people.

It’s funny though, because it is so easy to judge someone for what they are wearing, what they believe or how they act. It isn’t until you experience it from the other side of the spectrum, the one people are talking about and judging, that you realize how hurtful judgement can be.

You see, judgement might not be, in the large scale of things, a very big deal. But, judgement is like planting a seed in someone’s mind. Eventually all those times people were criticized for their decisions, all the times they had been intruded on, will cause them to become resentful of whoever has done this to them in the past. This all keeps building up and building up until you find yourself hating that person and everything that they stand for.

This word, judgement, is the cause for entire hordes of people running away from certain religions. Judgement has caused a hatred for certain people, or classes of people, which in turn leads to violence and killing.

For some reason humans have a problem with not getting into the business of other people. We feel the need to get involved with something that is entirely not our concern. If we are walking along and we see someone living in a way that we disagree with, we feel the need to place judgement and say what they are doing is wrong, simply because it is something we think is wrong. Have we ever thought to take a step back and realize that millions of people, most-likely, think something that we do in our own lives is wrong?

In the large scale of the world, we are all just trying to survive and be happy. The world is a tough and ugly place at times, only made uglier by the stereotyping and judgement that is cast around us. A helping hand is more helpful than a disapproving head nod. The simple fact is we will always disagree with something that someone does in their life. We might think that there is a right way to do something, or a different way that would be better, but the truth is, it is not our place to intervene.

Humans are stubborn and we want to do things our own way. This is clearly evident in our everyday lives. What we all need to understand is that by judging someone and telling them what they are doing is so wrong, all you are going to do is push them more to doing it. They will (well, most people) will never stop whatever it is that they are doing simply because you say it is wrong in a judgmental way. And in turn all this will do is cause them to resent you and whatever you stand for in the process.

Let us all get along in a peaceful way. The only way to do this is to realize that we are all human and we will all live how we please. The sooner we learn to accept the fact that people will always have different beliefs and ideals, and the sooner we accept that it is okay, the better off our world will be. Peace will never be attainable, but if more of us try for it, if more of the world would learn to love instead of judge and hate, we might be taking a step in the right direction.