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A Word from Anne

Does anyone know why judgment has grown to epidemic proportions in our world? I have my theories, and I’m sure you have yours too, but here’s the problem with labeling people. Not one human being on this planet has all the information they need to accurately place a judgment on someone else, and that is what a label is.

The minute you place a label on a person, you clothe them in judgment. The labels we give are based on external packages, and we all know that a human being is infinitely more valuable than just their body, gender, birthplace, profession, title, pay grade, or anything else.

Label-Less

It is impossible to assemble a complete label on a human being. You might look at someone and place a label on them because of things you think you know such as looks, profession, gender, faith, and beliefs but humans are infinitely more valuable than anything you can see.

We can't see the value that a human life will bring to the world over the course of a lifetime.

A human life is as fluid as a river. It changes constantly. None of us are the same right now as yesterday or tomorrow.

We don't know who is here to donate a kidney to your loved one, or who will offer you your dream job one day or provide food for your child. Here's the tricky part. We will never have enough information to accurately judge someone else.

So how do we judge? We label people and write straw stories based on the limited information we have like looks, religion, career title, ... and we sell it to ourselves and others. We are not here to place judgement on others so we are never given all the information we need.

We are all part of the human race and judgement is the root cause of hurt and fear (primary emotions) which leads to loneliness, anger and hate (secondary emotions). We have to stop judging. It is one of the hardest things you will do but one of the best things you will ever do.

Here's a trick. When you are tempted to place your own judgement on someone, pick up a drinking straw. Look through the straw at the person you want to judge and notice how much of that person you can see through the straw.

Not much. That is how much we truly know about this person. We don't know what they've been through and we don't know what the future holds. So we make it up in our own minds. It's not real and it's always wrong.

Let's start a straw movement. Keep one with you at all times and look through it whenever you are tempted to judge someone. What can you see through that straw? That is how much you know.

Is it enough to place a judgment? No! There is so much anger and violence in our world. Let's all do our part to reduce it by Labeling Less! Take a picture of you with your straw, your family with their straws, or your colleagues with their straws, and upload/share them in hopes that others will follow.