I’ll spare you the details of the contemptuous cacophony of unbridled remarks made in the press about the life and death of former playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith. You can Google her and get an earful or eyeful as video clips are still being plastered across the web at a record pace.
What struck me about this tragedy is the fact that this woman could be anyone we know. The phrase, "There but for the grace of God go I, " is ringing in my head.
Yes, the woman had problems, by most accounts led a tumultuous existence, and was grief stricken over the death of her 20 year old son Daniel, five months ago. Her story was, and is tragic. But the way she lived her life was ultimately her choice. The choices she made might not agree with our sense of conventional wisdom, but it doesn’t mean she should be mocked in death.
Many were not surprise about her passing, in fact some predicted it. A sad commentary on what some people do with their time. And while I don’t condone her behavior, I prefer not to sit in judgment. The fact is that Anna Nicole was literally a punching bag throughout much of her life. Did she allow herself to be abused? Was she the product of manipulation?
Whether she allowed her self to be put in that position is really no ones business now. Anna Nicole is dead and she no longer has to listen to the rhetoric swirling around her every move in the media.
On this day I think less about Anna than I do of how we treat each other on a daily basis, especially at work. How carefully do we really listen when another person is in pain, and how carefully do we gauge the serious nature of that pain? Are we just listening and not hearing another person? How quickly do we move into judgment?
When we’re at work, there couldn’t be a better place to practice compassion. We spend a lot of time there, and interact with a diverse lot of people. Suspending judgment toward others, or offering an olive branch to those whose day has been less than peaceful, is a nice way to cultivate compassion.
