Did you know that making a snap judgment about others would reveal secrets about us? What is a snap judgment anyway? Quite simply it is the propensity to make a very quick broadly based judgments based on factors like sex, religion or physical limitations. We have all been taught not to do it. We all know it is wrong, but we still do it anyway. Everybody knows the story of Susan Boyle. We are a visual society, and at the very first sight of another person or situation we make a snap judgment.
I hate to be judged, don’t you? I tend to think of myself as unbiased and unprejudiced. So when I sense or feel that I’m being judged prematurely and without basis in an unflattering way, I become very annoyed and agitated. But that is only if I sense the judgment is unflattering.
I remember being judged unfairly in my opinion a few years ago. I had just purchased for the first time in my life a scooter to aid with my growing mobility obstacles from a childhood case of polio. It was not an easy thing to do because I remembered all too well when I was confined to a wheelchair as a child. There was always something unsettling and embarrassing to be speaking to someone, supposedly eye to eye, when you are sitting and they are standing. It takes some getting used to. I picked out the cutest little reds scooter you can imagine. After some coaxing from my daughter and husband we decided to go to a local park for a walk, well it was a ride from me, and a walk for them. I decide to ignore my pride and vanity. Picture this; my husband, and daughter who were pushing my two-year-old grandson in a stroller were walking along briskly trying to keep up with me. I cranked that little red scooter up to 10 miles an hour, my hair was flying, I was laughing and having the best time, stopping occasionally to look back at them and yell out like a kid,” catch me if you can”. But it’s a very large park with the many different paths leading in many different directions. When I was about three city blocks ahead of them, I stopped patiently waiting for them to catch up. I happened to stop next to a couple that looked lost and were looking at a park map. They ignored me and talked amongst themselves. When my daughter and husband caught up to me, the couple looked over my head and asked my family for directions. That was like a slap in the face. I knew at that very moment they made a snap judgment about my mental capabilities and thought that I would not have been able to give them accurate directions. The truth is I had no idea how to get around the park, and neither did my family, but my ego was offended. I had been judged unfairly. I believe that the couple in the park was more disabled then I, only their prejudice was hidden deep inside of their hearts. They were the disabled ones.
