"Do not judge, or you too will be judged." *

"You're a jerk!"

These words were directed at me and came form the mouth of my boss in the library today. They surprised me and may surprise you, too.

My coworker, Ereman, and my boss often talk about people behind their backs and spend much of the time when the library is empty spinning gossip. There's another guy that often stops by to trade his share, too. This guy is always commenting that I am always quiet and reading.

"You sure like to read, don't you?" is his usual question.

Yes, much more than talking about people badly.

Anyway, the three others in the library were doing their usual "gos-swap" and labeling certain guys as stalkers. My boss is a young blond that many guys find attractive, so in this environment there are some that come to the library to get a good look. Ereman calls these guys stalkers and is quite liberal with the use of the label. He's probably on target with some of these, but he extends the label to guys with poor social skills who just come off as weirdos.

I don't think it's our place to judge these guys, especially so superficially. One of the "stallions" comes by each morning to poke his head in the door and greet us. When he actually comes in the library, he asks Ereman or me for a recommendation, grabs a book, and leaves. Yesterday he came straight form work without a pass. Because he had to go get a pass to come in, he awkwardly joked to my boss that he should have a permanent pass.

This led to my boss labeling him a stalker, which led to me defending him and others, which led to the opening exclamation of this entry. She got mad at me for defending someone who wan;t there to defend himself. When asked why, I explained that they were wrong about the guy and that they were judging quite a few people harshly without understanding everything. That's part of why I'm here: people not understanding the situation fully. It upsets me to see it so often and so blatantly, even though I do it myself in my head. That doesn't mean it needs to be spoken or projected onto so many. Ereman's reasoning that it protects our boss isn't quite valid. It makes this place more threatening than it needs to be.

* Matthew 7:1