Week 117: Expectations.

I've always believed you should seek goodness in others and not pass judgement on them until they have done something to wrong you, regardless of their race, skin colour, social status, financial status, religion, beliefs, physical appearance, music taste or clothes. Opinions come into it as well, just because someone does not share the same opinion as you, does not make them a bad person at heart. Always focus on the positive, only hate when it is absolutely necessary to hate and use it as a last resort. Follow this and you'll do a lot better in life.

Dan.



This was taken near Soho, New York. From what I was saying before, it relates to prejudice. I never know what to think when the homeless ask me for my money. They could be genuinely desperate for money that will provide them with food, or they could spend it on other substances such as drugs or alcohol. You never know. Which is why, I will never give a homeless person money. Instead, I will give them some food. This way I can get an idea of what the money was intended for by the individual's reaction and it also gives me the satisfaction that I have done a good deed. On the other hand, giving a person money may or may not result in a good deed, this is why you must be cautious. You can never be to certain though. In London 'Pret A Manger' give their left over sandwiches to the homeless at the end of the day. Which, I think beats most other conglomerate businesses that will throw all the left over food in the bin. So after seeing the copious amount of homeless people in NYC I thought about this for a while. You can never judge someone until you have truly got to know them and their intentions. Intentions are the key to a person's nature.

If you ever get a chance, read the novel Stone Cold by author Robert Swindells. It is quite a short book but has a lot of philosophy behind it. It deals with the homeless, and in this case a young man that had serious bad luck and was forced onto the streets. This is the case for thousands of people around the world, sometimes it is not their fault whatsoever and they still get treated badly by the general public. However, there are some out there that are homeless due to their own lifestyle, and have nobody to blame but themselves. It is thoughts like this that have lead me to a way of thinking that you can never say "I know what it's like to be in your shoes" or "I completely understand" because, no matter how similar your situation may have been or how much you think you understand somebody's situation, you just do not understand.

No matter how much you think you've been in the same position as another individual, you still cannot understand what they are going through. This is because EVERYONE is an individual, they have all had different past experiences to everybody else. They have all lived their lives in different ways and therefore will view things differently. It is this mass variety in perception that differentiates the way each individual will view alternative situations. So please, when you are giving support to somebody, be sympathetic but do not try and compare their situation with yours. It may have been harder for you, it may have been easier but at the end of the day it was a completely different situation.

Song listening to right now: King of The Road - Roger Miller