We're all so quick to judge but have you ever had a piece of the cake you're hating on? There's a very few and selected number of people that I know are not afraid to try something new. There's also a group of people that think trying something new just means eccentric sports or fashion. I'm keen on the first group, the second annoys me some. There's a saying that goes "Don't criticize someone unless you've walked in their shoes". There's many ways to put that phrase to work and some of us add distance to it, as in miles. Us humans like to put tags on things, people, animals, emotions, etc., and we judge easily according to such tags and the way they influence our personality -- or better yet -- what we want people to think our personality is. For example: Kate wears flip flops and tube socks and I immediately break out into song about how that's a mortal sin. In my particular case, I don't hate her but I sure as hell make fun of her. People are quick to define a person because of what they wear, what they say, how they say it, who their friends are, where they live, their material possessions, how much money they have and what activities they do. And we like, or love, or hate, or loathe them because of those things. Today I heard someone knocking on a meal. They said how awful it was, how unreal its tradition was. It made me ponder. See, I loved that meal and I even gave the chef a big ol' hug cause that meal made me so frigging happy. It reminded me of a time when my dad used to cook for me cause it had that homely taste. The funniest thing of it all was that later on that person said they had never really tried it but it just seemed too disgusting. I try to contain myself cause by judging their stupidity I would succumb to their judging game and that's not progress. It would make me think I'm right and they're wrong and we'd be all in the starting line once again. Heck, I just realized I am at the starting line again. I try and let people be so they can let me be as well, but I can't help but feel upset as to how people think they know so much when they have never been through situations other have. They like to criticize the reaction of someone when their loved one dies but they have never lost someone like this. They make nasty comments about how X person seems to be so dependent on her spouse, but they never knew how neglected she was all her life. How hurt she was by those that were meant to care for her. How safe, loved and even unworthy she feels of her beloved's attention. We all have our personal history and experiences. We've all tried different things in life and some worked for us, some didn't. Just because we got that end result doesn't mean everyone else will. Thank FSM for diversity, maybe some day he'll defend his precious work by zapping us idiots from the face of the world. Passion