Sølvregel nr. 3

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Pir Zias kommentar:
What is the risk in overestimating someone, expecting too much? Can you recall such an experience, and especially, the disappointment that followed afterwards? Such misjudgments are fair neither to the other person nor to oneself. One’s feelings of disappointment or betrayal are the result of an initial false premise.

In underestimating, one is missing what is before one’s eyes, discounting someone, neglecting the potential in the person and thereby missing an opportunity. This is all too common, isn’t it? We fit a person into a category. We stop seeing the person, and see only the category. We hear only what we think they would be saying if we were listening.

Perhaps it isn’t always possible to see another person fully. We are not omniscient. And yet it is in our power to wipe the sleep from our eyes and look with unclouded vision. It’s a matter of being open, attentive, and conscious in every relationship.

Being seen and esteemed rightly is a blessing. We are not flattered by insincere and facile praise, but when someone sees the actual qualities of our inner being—qualities which are, perhaps, not yet visible to the unseeing eyes of the world—these qualities are thereby encouraged to shine out more brightly. Having ourselves been properly seen, and thus blessed, it is natural to seek to see others likewise.

My conscientious self, place people rightly in your estimation.