On Judgement. (Patreon)

Hello lovely Patrons.

Wanted to share this comic here before it goes out on socials and ramble on a little bit about it. So my return to the gallery was overall lovely. It's really easy to socially distance in the National Gallery because she's HUGE. I had the most wonderful visit that felt largely normal - something I have a real hankering for these days.

BUT I noticed that my brain was making up all kinds of stories about the people around me if they were acting in a way I didn't like. It hadn't occurred to me that since the onset of this pandemic, I've been making increasingly more micro-judgements about whether I think people are acting "correctly" out in public. Distancing, mask wearing, touching things (including faces) has all become something I'm watching (and judging) CONSTANTLY. 

Now this is reasonable to some extent. We're in the weirdest social contract ever to try to all make it out of quarentimes and there's a part of me that's naturally gauging how "safe" I think other people are based on their behaviour.

BUT ALSO there is definitely a part of me that's already deemed some behaviours "good" pandemic behaviour (giving space, sanitizing hands) and others "Bad" (wearing your mask on your forehead) and lumping them in with other things I notice and judge (talking loudly in a gallery, taking selfies in front of art).

There's nothing inherently wrong with these micro-judgements necessarily, and some of them might even make sense to make safer choices for myself but I think it's interesting that I've already started getting a little "mean girl" about it, at least in my own head. 

Covid Judgies.

Like all judgies, the Covid Judgies are surely the result of being unable (or unwilling) to imagine other people complexly  and so see them only in the instant they intersect with (and potentially inconvenience) ME. So. I'm gonna do my very best to quell those covid judgies and try to remember that people are more than just the moment they cross my path. 

Wish me luck!

B