Ugly or beautiful, poor or rich, fat or lean, and good or bad looking were parameters I usually used to pre-judge someone. Those parameters used to give me the first impression I had about someone. Life showed me I was totally wrong. Pre-judging a man before knowing his story taught me a great lesson.
Judging a man only for his external look gave me a totally wrong idea of what he actually was. A man not shaved, living on streets, without a bath, bed or even drinking water, using dirty clothes, with no shoes, and smelling of alcohol is the picture of the man I met that night. When he started to talk to me, his breath was exhaling a strong smell of alcohol. I had learned that excessive use of alcohol is destructive for a person. Then, in possession of that external information I judged that man, and started to rebuke him. I told him that alcohol was destructive for his life. I also told him that because of the excessive use of alcohol he probably was living on streets with nothing. I said to him: “it is hard for our loved ones living with someone who is constantly drunk”. I was determined to convinced that man to stop drinking. However, I did not stop to listen to that man story.
Understanding the man’s story, and his reasons, made me feel smaller than a penny. That man was from another state in Brazil. His family was very poor and was facing great financial difficulties. He had to do something. Thus, he had get hides in order to travel to Sao Paulo (the richest state in Brazil) to try a better life. When he arrived in Sao Paulo he was a victim of one robber. He lost everything in that incident, including his documents. He didn’t have family in Sao Paulo or any place to stay. He had to start to live on streets asking for charitable donation’s. His bed was an empty cardboard box with a hole in the front that was used like a door. I can remember it was a very cold night. He explained to me that he had to use alcohol to warm up his body because he did not have any blanket, only his own clothes.
Definitely, an open heart to understand before judging is essential for those who want to help someone. I was there to help homeless people. I was there to bring food and the Gospel for people who were living on streets. I belong to one Christian church who regularly used to promote food distribution for homeless. After the food distribution we used to talk about the Gospel and to my surprise, that man was a Christian. I could not realize and understand his situation. I judged before and made a strong mistake.
In conclusion, a man can not be judged only for his external appearance. His story and everything that involves his life has to be considered. I learned that we have to listen and understand first, and even before, we can not judge.
More comments to come...just wanted to let you know that grammar seems pretty strong here, no real issues I could see. I'll say more about content later--an interesting story!
ReplyDeleteHi Mauricio....
ReplyDeleteI really like what you've written about here, I think the ultimate moral "don't judge a book by it's cover" is very clear here!
I feel like maybe you could do more showing and less telling as prof. Pappas showed us
Mauricio,
ReplyDeleteA agree the moral here is clear and the writing, as I said, overall is competent. I would like to see a little more development. Generally this type of essay (where the writer learns a lesson and changes his outlook) has three basic parts: what he was like before, the experience itself, and how the writer was changed/what he did differently going forward.
I'd like to see a little more development in the beginning about how judgmental you were before. Could you give an example or two?
Within the story itself, I don't understand until the end how you had come to be on the streets and how you had met him. Maybe explain earlier about your mission and why you were there. How did he come to tell you his story? You say you didn't stop to listen? Why did he bother to tell you? It would be nice to see some dialogue. I know you probably can't remember exactly what he said, but in a personal essay like this you're allowed to recreate and imagine what was said.
Then in your conclusion you might go into a little more about how this has changed your attitudes, with again a specific example or two and/or maybe some reflection about the importance of being open to people and not pre-judging (it's a Christian sort of attitude, right?)
Overall, though, well done, and
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ReplyDeleteThis essay reminded me of people being judged by their appearance alone.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your essay, I thought about a book I read,"Snow Falling on Cedars", By David Guterson. The heart of the book deals with the Japanese residents in the U.S. being judged by their ethnicity during World War II.