Yes I’m Judging

As the title clearly states, heads up because this is a ‘judgy’ post. Normally I try not to judge, or judge too harshly, the day-to-day behaviour of other people because it’s not kind and I have no idea what’s happening in their lives.

But…the other day I’m on the treadmill at the gym, I’d already done my workout but wanted a bit more cardio before finishing. I had the treadmill at a 7 incline and the speed at 3.2. I didn’t have my headphones to listen to music so I was just kinda zoning.

A young woman set herself up on the treadmill next to me: she was wearing really big headphones (I won’t say they were tawdry because they looked expensive) and holding her phone in her right hand. I wasn’t really paying attention but I did glance over, as you do, and she was playing a card game on the treadmill computer screen. It looked very complicated, there were virtual cards everywhere and she was clicking and flicking them with the fingers of her right hand, still holding her phone.

The treadmill incline was set to 15! Yes…15! She was leaning forward and hanging on to the top of the screen with her left hand and her elbow was on the little ledge where you can rest a phone. When I say hanging on, I mean hanging on, she was gripping tight. Periodically she would look at her phone then resume the card game.

Now the judgy part…. headphones, cell-phone, virtual card game…and having to drape herself over the front of the machine. I just kept thinking, what’s the point? How is that enjoyable? Why are you even bothering? See…totally judging.

For all I know she was doing the same thing as me, a short stint to finish off her workout and jacking up the incline and playing cards made it more enjoyable even though she had to hang on with one hand. I’m shaking my head as I write this, unable to convince myself because I wouldn’t find it enjoyable.

So that was one story. Want to hear another one that also happened at the gym?

Today, I was rushing to the ladies room before my class and as I passed through the change room I saw a woman sitting on a bench in the process of pulling her yoga pants down over her feet. So what?

She was bare-bottomed. Sitting on a changing room bench bare-bottomed. Not sitting on a towel. Tell me that isn’t judge worthy.

I will do my best to be a better person tomorrow. To be kinder and more compassionate. But really…bare-bottomed on a changing room bench. Please!

The photo was taken in Wickenburg, Arizona (2023). This is the Jail Tree, where people who’d been judged were ‘jailed’ until they could be transported to the actual jail in Preston. Not that I think either of the people in my post should be jailed…maybe the bare-bottom lady?