"Can't even run his own life. I'll be damned if he'll run mine"
For the record, I am very judgmental. Perhaps it's the Taurus in me. Perhaps it's because I can't see very well so I'm careful where I step. Perhaps I have a strong personality and a good image of who I think I am or how I think life should be. But regardless of the cause, I tend to come across as judgmental. I try hard not to give off that impression, and fight hard to avoid being that way towards others.
But this is a problem with image, not with substance.
I don't consider myself as judging others for their decisions, lifestyles or worldviews. I carefully and deliberately judge myself. I think this is the right thing to do. If I see two people in a relationship, and there are components of that relationship that I admire, I want to absorb and imitate those qualities in my own relationships. If I observe qualities in others' relationships that I do not like or agree with, I want to avoid those issues in my own relationships.
From before we each learned to speak, we began practicing the art of 'Observation and Imitation'. Part of raising children is to be careful what they observe in their parents (or on TV), because they imitate everything. They can't tell which characteristics should be imitated and which should be shunned.
If my dog bites me, I will hit it. I figure the dog just hit me the only way it knew how, and I have to hit it back. Is this a judgment of the dog? (The dog sure as hell thinks so.) But it's not. It is a judgment about whether I will allow myself to be bitten by my dog. It's not really about judging the dog or revenge or retaliation or anything else. It is about how I should be treated by my dog in my house.
I disagree with conservative christian condemnation of the gay world. I also disagree with the 'no boundaries' lifestyle of some in the gay world. I do so without judging either of them. Each of us must be our own judge.
I'm pointing this out in case my blog sounds as judgmental and closed minded as the people I complain about. I'm not that way. I am nobody's judge except my own. If anything in my blog connotes otherwise, please disregard it.