Two Observations

Two observations. 

I was picking up my mail from the post office a couple of days ago as they are not delivering to our neighborhood yet. As I was getting ready to walk out the door a young man on crutches was struggling to get through the door. I was unaware of his plight because I was checking to see if I had the right mail, since the post office seems to be set on giving me my neighbor's mail instead.  

As he pushed the door open, and hobbled a bit he caught my eye, and I realized his dilemma. I immediately pushed the door open for him, and apologized for not paying attention sooner. At the same time a young woman had rushed to his aid as well. She made eye contact with me, and I could tell she was not happy with me not assisting the young man. 

I immediately apologized for not helping him, and as I stepped away I realized that it bothered me that she didn't seem to be happy with my actions. I kept thinking, "Wait, a minute you don't know the whole story." I'm really a very considerate person, it's just that I happened to be checking my mail right at the time he was trying to get in."

Now I came away from this with two observations. The first being that it is easy to pass judgement before you know the whole story. I do this too just by someone's appearance, or by a snippet of information I might have received from social media. 

The other was how concerned I am with strangers' perceived opinions of me. This same kind of thing happened when I didn't fill the boot at an intersection recently. I had just filled it the day before, but I kept think the firefighter was thinking less of me for being cheap. I wanted to yell out the window, "Hey, I contributed yesterday! See I'm a decent person after all."

It bothers me on both accounts. I shouldn't be so quick to pass judgement, and maybe I shouldn't spend so much time making sure everyone likes me.