judgmental

This post is a confession of my judgmental attitude about some specific things. I need to note that no one who I know who reads this blog has ever triggered the attitude that I talk about here. I wouldn't post this if that were the case.

Try as I may to address this, there are a few things that I can stil be quite judgmental about. A lot of them have to do with how people spend money, so I am sure this says more about me than them. It's really none of my business how people spend their money, and I am definitely not a good judge of the frivolous, but certain key things trigger my judgment. Again, this is something that I am working on.

When I speak with someone who golfs regularly, which isn't that often, I have a hard time not thinking in the back of my mind that a cheaper and less time-consuming hobby might be a better idea. This is wrong on a couple of levels. While a serious golfer may sink several thousand dollars a year into the sport, I know that casual golfers can do so for a few hundred a year. Even if someone does spend thousands on the sport, it's his or her decision on how to spend it.

When I visit a house where the decor has a very expensive feel I make similar judgments. The interior design has to look very exquisite for me to feel this way, but when it does I do. I think about what a waste this extravagance is. I don't think about the things that I might like that are expensive.

When I see someone in a new BMW or Mercedes or similar luxury car my judgmental attitude is triggered again. I wonder who in the world would need such frill. I don't think about the fact that my Taurus would be a luxury in some areas of the world.

The reason that these specific things trigger these bad thoughts is that these are things I always mentally associated with people who were upper class when I was growing up. I don't make those judgments about people who have cable television, for example, because my family as well as many of my friends' families had cable when I was growing up. I judge golf largely because I didn't have any close friends who I knew golfed.

Regardless of my reasons, I know I need to be more careful about how I interpret other peoples' relationships with their money. Mine is the one that I should be concerned about.