I was just thinking about the phrase "before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes". The idea of it is supposed to be that you don't have the right to judge or criticize someone until you've been through what they've been through.

This entry isn't entirely related to that, but it does have to do with the "in their shoes" part of the phrase. About a week ago, another forum I visit had a topic to honor the memory of another member's late friend. The friend had "mixed with the wrong crowd", which led to his death.

This got me thinking. I think it's regrettable that the person did that, when according to the member the friend had been a really great person before mixing in with the "wrong crowd". But I also thought of the "mile in their shoes" phrase, and thought, can I really blame him or say that he was wrong? From my viewpoint, yes it was, but then again I haven't walked a mile in the person's shoes.

So I kept thinking even more. What does it actually mean to walk a mile in that person's shoes? The usual meaning of that phrase is, mentally put yourself in that situation. But is that possible? I mean, I can pretend I'm in that person's immediate situation, and make judgments and decisions based on that, but to truly walk a mile in their shoes, to truly put yourself in their situation, you have to know everything else they've been through. Not just their immediate situation but their whole past life. Their childhood, their role models, events that subtly influenced and together made them the way they are now. If I put myself in that person's immediate situation, I might have done something other than what he did, but if I had been in their situation and had the same exact childhood and experiences?

So I decided, it's impossible to really put yourself in someone's situation because you haven't been through the same experiences they have that may have subtly influenced them to make a particular choice in this immediate situation. But then I realized, the phrase "walk a mile in another's shoes" was never meant to be interpreted literally in the first place so I just let myself go off on a philosophical tangent for no reason.

Just a random thought.