Never Judge People Based on what you Hear.
Years ago I've worked for a small size company and there was a receptionist that everybody was warned to stay away from because of her attitude. We were told that she was very rude and can sometimes be very nasty to people. She was an elderly woman in her late 60's and she's been working at the company for over 12 years.
The first question that popped up in my head was, why they haven't fired her is she's that bad? The first two weeks I started working there, just like I was told, I did everything to avoid making any contact with her. In my third week working at the company, I didn't feel right passing in front of her desk just like everybody else, and not even say hello.
So the following day, as I was coming, I said good morning to her. She looked at me but didn't say one word and put her head down and continued reading her little book. Since I'm the type of person who doesn't give up that easy, the next morning I said hi to her again and for the rest of the week, despite the fact that she never responded. But on Friday, as I was leaving work, I said to her, have a good weekend. For the first time, she called me by my name. I was a little shocked.
So I approached her, then she asked me, "What is wrong with you?" I replied, what is wrong with me? No, the question should be, what is wrong with you? She said; I've been working here for years, to date, everybody treats me like I'm invisible. They only time people talk to me is when they need me to do something for them. I got to a point where I'm used to it. Then here you are, coming out of the blue with a different attitude. So what's your problem? Didn't they tell you while on training not to be friendly with me?
I replied, yeah, something like that, but I chose otherwise. She looked at me and then shook her head and smile. That day she and I became friends, good friends. In fact, she even gave me some of her homemade cookies on that and every following day until I left the company. That's the benefit of having elderly women as friends, they always have homemade cookies or pies.
I spent 6 and a half years working for that company. Through those 6 and a half years, frankly, it turned out to be she was the sweetest, the kindest, and the nicest person throughout the whole company. And that lady who kept telling people to stay away from her was actually the rude and the nasty one, if I may say that. Everything started with a personal conflict that's been going on between them for years.
Through that experience, I've learned two things; the first is to never judge people based on what I've heard, and then the second is that, sometimes, those who are pointing fingers at that person may be doing so only to cover their tracks, their own bad deeds. As a result, if not mindful enough, you may end up hating or even stoning an innocent person to death over information purposely misleading.
I was watching the News over the weekend, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has decided to put a halt on all inmates' executions throughout the state. Because he realized that a great percentage of those who are sentenced to death are either wrongfully accused or innocent.
He stated for the time he's been in office, he couldn't live with himself, signing those execution's orders on a daily basis, while he's aware that a great percentage of those who are sentenced to death are actually innocent and perhaps, he may be giving an ok to kill an innocent person. This is a good and a great man filled with compassion, and may God bless his soul for doing that.
In case you didn't know how detrimental a simple lie on somebody else can be, now you know. It can be a matter of life and death's situation.
Nothing is worse than being the victim but treated as the guilty one. It takes a lot of courage and will-power to overcome this because it's a very painful thing to deal with. So never judge people based on what you've heard, do a little homework, assess the facts and the story. Always be willing to give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove you otherwise because calumny is the devil's secret weapon of mass destruction and unfortunately, it works very effectively.
(R.M., 2019).
