Judge-y Wudge-y was a bear

The lovely state in which I live, and I am not referring to the state of bliss – har de har har, has recently added to the laws one that states no one shall operate a moving vehicle whilst chit chatting on a hand held cellular telephone. Since the surrounding states have had this law for some time now, so just a matter of time before we did too. Now here we are, my pals and I, all scrabbling around for hands free cellular devices and wiring ourselves, so as to continue to be law abiding citizens. (Of course, my DH would not call me a "law abider", because he recently had to pay a $200 speeding ticket for me. My job, whilst all consuming and all rewarding, doesn’t pay a dime. For more on this topic, please see Ann Crittenden’s The Price of Motherhood. It’ll make you MAD.) But what I was going to tell y’all is this: Just today, one week after the law went into effect, I am on my way home from my playgroup. What do I see? A policeman, in a police cruiser, zipping down a main street, yapping on a hand-held cell phone, for the entire world to see. Honestly, next thing I am going to see is a police car going over the posted speed limit…

Am I being judgmental here? A few nights ago, in my spinning class, my dear teacher, a very clever woman who I like very much, told me I was being judgmental when I told this other girl in our class how to cook sweet potatoes. This girl, let’s call her Annabel, is new to the class and was asking for tips on how to eat better. Since she admitted she likes Wendy’s the best (!) of all the restaurants around, I could tell she really needed tips, and fast. I did not, not even a little, launch into my tirade on the evils of fast food. She’s only 20-something and has cut her teeth on the stuff, so I’ll just let her see Super Size Me and be horrified on her own. What I did tell her was this;
“Okay, get a whole sweet potato, peel it, slice it or chop it into rough chunks or even-ish slices, toss it in boiling water and cook it until a knife just sinks into the pieces easily. Then you can mash the potato with a fork, or just eat the bits as is, with salt or maple syrup or whatever. Also, once cooked, it’ll keep in the fridge for about three days, useful, right?”

Apparently, her eyes just glazed over, and she nodded and Uh huh-ed and blanked me out. The next class, Miss Silver, the teacher, told me, “Ya know, MOT, you were being really judgmental to Annabel in the last class when you gave her a lecture on cooking sweet potatoes.” I was floored. Well, not literally, because I was on a spin bike doing about 25 miles an hour at the time, so it would have been dangerous. But still, I was a bit shocked.

I know I am mighty opinionated, and I know I have a burning desire to help people eat better and improve their way of life by improving their diets. Just ask anyone who has heard me gas on about High Fructose Corn Syrup and liver damage for an hour. My friend, Preacher Mom, called this my “Ministry”. (I thought that was great, I always wondered why the hell I was here on this earth!) I also know I have a big mouth and like to express myself and I love to teach and share my experiences, whenever I can. But judgmental? I don’t agree with that. To me a judgmental person is someone who condemns or categorizes someone else based on his or her actions or lives. I was not telling Annabel I thought she was a bad person, or a stupid person, for not knowing how to cook a potato. I was trying to teach her something she expressed an interest in learning. However, I got it wrong. According to my fellow student Carla, and our teacher, I was pushy and domineering and Annabel was not ready or able to hear what insights I had to share. Huh. Go figure.

I have a theory. I think that one of the reasons people disagree is that our brains are all built differently. There are all these receptor sites in our heads, and a lot of us have different sites than other people do. These receptor sites are where certain bits of information plug in and are processed. If you don’t have the site built yet, and/or have nowhere for the new site to go, you are absolutely unable to process the information given, because it just bounces off and slides away. If the site is partially built, you can get a bit of the information, but it doesn’t really sink in. Or plug in, to maintain the theory. This means that Annabel is missing the receptor where my sweet potato mash recipe could attach; therefore, she was not be able to retain the knowledge. Does this statement mean I am judging her? Does this mean I am being judgmental? Am I calling her a stupid idiot for being too young/too inexperienced/too disinterested to listen to me? Well, no. There are loads of people who don’t listen to me, for loads for reasons.

I hope it’s not because I am so judgmetal. George, whattya think?