When one considers how large the human population is, it is amazing how often one meets someone under certain conditions, where one believes he knows nobody, who knows someone you know! A popular celebrity game was even created, often referred to as "Six Degrees of Separation," which took people who were in movies with Kevin Bacon, and within six steps, everyone was "related.
" Sometimes, this "closeness" of the human race is a wonderful experience.
For example, you are traveling somewhere and you meet someone.
During polite conversation, you mention where you are from, and the person you just met invariably asks if you know someone that he knows.
It is a wonderful occurrence when this individual is someone you like and/ or, are fond of, and it tends to "warm up" and "loosen up" the conversation and getting-to-know-you process.
Of course, most of us have also been in the opposite situation, where the person mentioned is someone you are not fond of, and, often times, human nature immediately "turns you off" regarding the new acquaintance.
An obvious, yet often forgotten circumstance of this "small world" reality, is that one must always be aware that someone else might be overhearing your conversation, and to be very careful about making any type of disparaging comments about anyone, no matter how much that other person might deserve it, because "you never know" who knows whom! It is entirely possible, and often the case, that someone you might have a poor opinion of (perhaps because of having a different relationship with that person, or observing them under differ circumstances, or perhaps being a keener observer), might be very friendly with someone else that you meet.
It is not at all unusual for someone you meet that might be very nice to be close friends with someone else that you might have a bad opinion of.
Therefore, it is usually wise to keep your opinions about people to yourself.
This does not mean that you have to be a phony and pretend to like someone that you have to be a phony and pretend to like someone that you do not, but rather that it often wise to keep your opinions to yourself.
Very often, it is much smarter to simply say nothing at all! It is probably a good idea to remember that each person is an individual, and that people develop attitudes, friendships, relationships, opinions, etc.
, based, to a large degree, on his own personal set of experiences, expertise, skill set, observations, and background.
While a very wise man might be able to avoid judging others at all, most of us develop an attitude and an opinion about most people.
This opinion might be favorable, unfavorable or neutral, but certainly impacts how each of us react differently to some people.
While there are few people that are liked by most people, and a few more that are disliked by most people, the vast majority of people have "mixed reviews" - - that is, that some people have favorable opinions about them while others do not! Since each person is entitled to his own opinion, we should all try to remember that we should attempt to avoid "burdening" others with our opinions, especially about other people.
Expressing opinions about others in public generally results in some sort of adverse effect.
We should, therefore, try to avoid this behavior, although it is very difficult to do.
Since it is difficult to be perfect about this, we should redouble our efforts to be careful, especially in public.
You never know who might be listening! It's a small world!