Compassion Wins

This morning I watched a segment on the morning news about a young woman in Florida who got arrested because she was video streaming her drunk driving. You may have seen it too. The reporters expressed the full array of judgmental thoughts about this person, pointing out how dangerous not only drunk driving is but also the dangers of video streaming while driving. Certainly these things are dangerous.

I just thought that this story was a god example of the wrong way to handle this situation. The comments come off sounding judgmental of the person. Certainly this person exhibited some bonehead behavior. I think we need to be careful to condemn the behavior and not the person.

So, what really happened here? This is an example of the Universe telling that young woman she needs to change her behavior. My guess is that there were hints prior to this event that she ignored. (If the universe is trying to tell you something and you’re not listening, it turns up the volume. –“In Pursuit f Joy”) I think our job here is to support that message.

As a society we want this risky behavior to stop. The message we need to send to this woman (and all others in her situation) is this: “You are a good person, but this behavior is unacceptable and must stop.” Our judgmental thoughts about the person actually mitigate against producing the change we all want.

Compassion wins.