Judge Slowly

In one of comedian Robert Wuhl’s HBO specials, “Assume the Position”, Mr. Wuhl shared an anecdote about legendary beauty/actress Hedy Lamarr. Ms. Lamarr was the Britney Spears of her era….a pretty actress that had notorious nude scenes in her early movies. One could easily assume that Ms. Lamarr was just another dumb actress/model. However, the same Ms. Lamarr invented & patented the designs for frequency hopping technology – originally intended to be used for torpedo guidance systems in World War II…but is still the basis for many of today’s electronic toys such as cell phones and Wi-Fi.

This is why it is important to Judge Slowly.

But humans by their very nature are quick to judge and label.

There is an old analogy entitled, “Oog & Ogg”.

Oog and Ogg are two cavemen who were walking through the primeval forest one day when they heard a twig snap in the trees behind them. Oog immediately thought, “Saber-toothed tiger!” and took off at top speed in the other direction. Ogg turned around and said, “Uh…. What’s that?”

Guess whose decedents we are.

What we can learn from “Oog” is that the ability of humans to rapidly identify (i.e. label) the things in our surroundings has been a major part of our survival. Being able to name things and do so as quickly as possible is a strong factor of human nature, whether we have enough information for a correct naming or not.

But this same ability to quickly judge and label can get in the way of our relationships with others and with our self.

Contrary to how the media presents the news, it is impossible to distill an individual or an entire lifetime down to a single sound bite.

But we still try.

Not much in society changes from High School: there is still the Jock (Peyton Manning), the Beauty (Angelina Jolie), The Nerd (Bill Gates), The Bad Boy (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), etc.

Families like to Label too: there is the Star (usually the oldest), there is the trouble-maker (usually born somewhere in the middle), and then there is the baby who doesn’t know anything (yeah, the youngest).

These labels are hard to shake.

Go to any family reunion or class reunion…and these old labels still hold on strong – whether they are still accurate or not.

But think about it for a moment. Are you today….who you were when you were 10 years old and beat-up your sibling? Or are you the same angry / rebellious adolescent you were at 16 years old? Or the same idealistic & ambitious soul you were at 20 years old…before life happened?

I sure hope not!

Life is a fluid process, not a label or a sound bite. People (this includes siblings & parents) need to be given the space to evolve, change, and mature over time.

Being quick to judge & label might have worked well for the cave man…but learning how to Judge Slowly can help out a lot more in your contemporary relationships with others…and with yourself.


References

Anonymous. (1997). Female Inventors: Hedy Lamarr. Retrieved July 10, 2008, http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html

Buchanan, L. (2008). Problems>Solutions>Innovations. Retrieved July 10, 2008, http://www.crviewer.com/

Wuhl, R. (2007). Assume the Position 201 with Mr. Wuhl. Retrieved July 10, 2008, http://www.hbo.com/events/rwuhl/