The more we judge others for their circumstances, the more we are likely to suffer from those same circumstances.

1. The Danger Of Judging Others

2. I Grew Up With A Single Mother, On A Street Where All The Other Families Were Still Two-Parent Families Eventually, it became apparent that the other families in the neighborhood did not approve of my family.

3. One Day, I Was Out On The Front Lawn And The Neighbor’s Father Was Out Fixing A Flagpole. I overheard him saying in reference to me, “ The reason we are so happy and have such good kids is because we are moral. We do not believe in things like divorce. Our kids will always do better than that sort of kid and always be much happier because we set such a good example. As a 12 year old boy, doing voluntary yard work on my mother’s house, I took this very hard.

4. After My Mother’s Second Husband Died, We Moved To A White Collar Neighborhood An old sorority sister of my mother’s, Diane, lived a few houses down from us. Apparently Diane, in addition to the rest of the “picture perfect” families, felt uncomfortable having a single mother on the street.

5. Though My Mother Pretended That It Didn’t Upset Her, I Knew It Did My mother never had a ton of boyfriends. However, everyone in the neighborhood still seemed to think that she was a bad influence because she was a single mother.

6. I Was Invited To Dinner One Night By A Woman Down The Street I was around 12 years old, and my sister, who came along, was about 5. When I entered the house, she said that if I was going to have dinner at her house, that I needed to go home, shower, and change clothes first. This hurt my feelings, but I ended up running home and showering.

7. When We Sat Down To Dinner, It Got Even Worse “ If you do not wipe your mouth off when you get food on it we will never invite you over to eat again,” she said to me. I spent the rest of the night in silence and fear. I was never invited over again.

8. I Remember Her Son, Sometime Later, Saying Something To Me Like: “ My mom says not to talk to you because you are trash!” Later, her elder son , who was around my age, stole a skateboard off of my front yard and smashed it to pieces with a sledgehammer.

9. His Friends Later Confessed That The Son Had Actually Taken And Destroyed The Skateboard I called his parents and demanded that they pay me for what their son had done. It was an expensive skateboard. “ My son says he did not do it and, even though the other kids say he did, we believe our son. We are not going to pay for it.” However, even after several of his friends had told them that their son was responsible, he still denied it to them. They believed him, and told me they would not pay for any of it.

10. About A Year Later, The Daughter Of These People Became Pregnant In the conservative area we lived in, this was unspeakable. Furthermore, when the baby was born, it turned out to be black, although she and her boyfriend were both white.

11. This was the biggest scandal I had known growing up.

12. In Almost Every Case Where Someone Has Been Judgmental To Me, Their Own Identities Have Been Comprised In The Same Way The lesson that I take from this is that we must realize that any judgments we make, may come back on us one day. I have also realized that no person is perfect and we are all hypocritical sometimes.

14. Daisy Is Married To Tom, With Whom She Has One Child Despite the fact that they both commit adultery, they refuse to leave each other because they will not risk losing their lavish lifestyles.

15. In Order To Become Rich, Gatsby Engages In Bootlegging Even though he becomes very wealthy, and hosts very large and lavish parties, he does not make any true friends. Also, when Daisy finds out about how Gatsby made his money, she loses respect for him.

17. I Have Learned From My Experiences Growing Up In That Neighborhood The more we judge others for their circumstances, the more we are likely to suffer from those same circumstances.