Judge Not

I might have plans for today other than the Halloween Party, a new folk opera Tam Lin  by Fiona Gillespie and Elliot Cole. I wish I knew about this earlier, I just found out late last night. Fiona posted this picture on Facebook. How can you not want to see an opera based on the ballad Tam Lin with a cast and orchestra that looks like this?

Did Salvador Dali design that cello? Is that a lyre or a bow? Did somebody give steroids to a guitar on the left? The celloid is in the viol family, I see the frets, but I’ve never seen one like that. If I see it, I’ll be writing more about it. Otherwise, I’ll wait to get the album and write about that. I have two confessions about the name Fiona. The first is that as I know it’s the feminine version of Fionn, which is pronounced Finn. The Irish throw in vowels out of whim. So, I want to pronounce Fiona as Finna. Even stronger I want to call anyone names Fiona, Pickles? Anyone other than Carey know why? On the Dick Van Dyke show Buddy Sorrel’s (Morey Amsterdam) wife is named Pickles. When Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) finds out her real name is Fiona, she asked her why she was called Pickles.

Pickles: In the neighborhood where I grew up everyone named Fiona was called Pickles.Mary: Were there many girls named Fiona in your neighborhood?
Pickles: No, just me.

That will always make me laugh. The Dick Van Dyke show is spamming my brain this week. I’ll be playing a song by Andrew Ratshin’s band the Mel Coolies on Gord’s Gold Thursday night on Folk Music Notebook. Mel was the Richard Deacon character on DVD, the producer of the Alan Brady Show. Andrew did you get the Pickles reference before I explained it? Anybody? Bueller?

None of that is this entry is about. I’m here to talk about the draft. No that was Arlo. I’m here to talk about being judgmental.

We all know the biblical quote, “Judge not lest ye be judged” (Matthew 7:1). I’m a Jewish atheist and I know it though I had to look up where it was from. The thing is that’s not judging is difficult. We want to judge. I know I do. The other thing is that we don’t like when other people are judgmental, at least I do. Just because we’re inwardly judging doesn’t mean we have to say something. To quote another Jewish sage, my father, “You shouldn’t say it even though it’s true.” This is something I feel strongly. Other people being judgmental triggers anger in me, especially when the judgments are based on superficialities. My biggest problem with the religious right, and all puritans, is that being judgmental becomes a guiding force. Things are better, they no longer burn witches, but they call out members of the LGBT community, and others that don’t live up to their own moral code. But here is where things get difficult for me. I don’t want to judge the religious right. I can say they are wrong, actions can be wrong, but I don’t want to attack them as people. And then things get more complicated. Many of my political compatriots are happy to judge the religious right. Some go even further and judge those that are sufficiently judgmental of the religious right. And then it gets even more complicated, I want to judge those on the left that are too judgmental of those on the right. But if I do that, I’m doing the same thing. My brain is about to explode.

So how do I untie this Gordian (love that word) knot? I don’t judge myself either for being judgmental but work at not expressing my judgments. My purpose of writing this is not to judge those that are too judgmental but to suggest that they try to express it less often and less strongly. All those born of man and woman are imperfect, even me. I know that’s hard to believe. I’ve had issue with some friends for being too judgmental. I remind myself that they are people that I love, they are good people. That’s a useful thought as the same could be true of those I don’t know and we should give them the benefit of the doubt, innocent until proven guilty.

Am I back in the sleep and blogging groove? I didn’t wake up at 6:15 like I wanted to today, I stayed up too late, but I did wake up at 7:40, ate breakfast and finished writing at 11:29 AM. I’ll take the small victories when I can find them. I’m working the Election on Tuesday from 5 AM until we finish work after the polls close at 9 PM. Let’s see what that does to my circadian rhythm. I’d like to think that I’ll go right to bed when I get home, but I know that won’t happen. I’ll be away from my computer all day so there’s no way I’ll be able to keep away.