Judgement

Is there a "e" in there? It' s one of my favorite words, and yet, I can hardly ever spell it correctly. Well, according the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, it can be spelled both "judgement" and "judgment". I find the second spelling ugly, so I shall proceed with the first.

When did "judgement" become an liability rather than an asset of one's character? It bothers me to hear, "Well, it's not for me to judge" or "Aren't you afraid you're being too judgemental?" If I can't or won't judge, how do I get out of bed in the morning? How do I determine whether or not something is good or bad? How could I possibly wrestle with higher thinking if I am unable, or unwilling to sit in judgement of ideas?

Perhaps most people mean stop harsh judgement, or prejudice regarding someone else's personal choices. Surely, I can judge someone else's choices, particularly if I judge behaviors or choices of others not to be consistent with one's that I would do or make. All my constant judgment does is help galvanize how I should live my life. I have no impact on the behavior of others. My thoughts and actions are independent from those of other people. I can, however, judge their thoughts and actions to be consistent or inconsistent with my view of life. And I must.

If I suspend all judgement, I would be like a newborn baby. Think about it. Judgement is constantly required in order to sustain life. I want to live and learn and make my way according to my own thoughts and actions; not live and be moved merely by prevailing wisdom.

Comments

C. August said…
Great points about judgements. (as I type this, Blogger is conveniently alerting me to the fact that I just spelled that wrong.)

I agree that it has long become a bad word, and people are loathe to appear that they are making any judgements at all. They still do it -- the have to in order to function day to day -- but they bend over backwards to cover it up or dilute it.

And about the spelling of the word... I do it all the time, too. I always stick the 'e' in there. Usually, if spell-check happens to catch it while I'm writing, I'll just accept the non-e version. But I agree with you that the word just looks more elegant and proper with the 'e'.
March 12, 2008 at 8:42 AM
Lynne said…
Thanks, C. August. I'm so excited about my first comment (the others are from my husband, so while they certainly count, they're not unexpected)!
March 12, 2008 at 11:36 AM
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