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It is funny how association can change your entire perspective, yet it happens so subtly.

Have you ever noticed how something you once strongly opposed, whether a belief, a lifestyle or a school of thought, suddenly becomes less offensive the moment you know or love someone who practices it? You find yourself trying to justify their actions or acting as if you do not see what they are doing.

If it were someone with no connection to you, you might be the first to judge, yet you let it slide because association has opened you up to seeing from the person’s point of view.

I have been a victim of this a few times, and one thing I realized is that when we judge or discriminate, we often do so with little or half baked knowledge. We do not consider every side. We view things from a superior angle, as if we are above the very issue we condemn.

Because of this, we remain ignorant of the very thing we hate or consider evil.

However, when someone close to your heart does the same thing, it tugs at you. You know it is wrong, but you also know their story. You know what they are capable of, so instead of seeing it from a superior perspective, you begin to see it from an emotional one.

But if your strong opposition to that vice is rooted in real knowledge, in understanding its pros and cons, and in logical reasoning, then when a loved one walks that path, your judgement will not be clouded by emotions and you will not become biased.

Dearest reader, the point is this: passing judgement is easy and anyone can criticize, but how many of us sit back to ask informed questions and find out why something is considered a vice?

Most times we do not, because we are biased. And the moment our associations become entangled with what we call a vice, we are more likely to pretend it no longer is.

@favvy_Okwans🖤.​