The Other

February 19, 2024

When we "other" someone, we are not necessarily looking down on them. Sometimes, when we other someone, it is to set them apart and above us. There is a well-known phrase used a lot in the dating world: "They are out of my league." This phrase asserts that "the other" is better than they are and that they would never be considered their equal.

We tend to put famous people, rich people, beautiful people, geniuses, well-accomplished people, spiritually evolved people, and heroes in categories OTHER than ours. But let's think about our judgment of them. When we assert they are out of our league, we declare that we do not measure up to them overall and that we are lesser. But that is false.

When we think of ourselves as less than someone else, we are not looking at the situation through the conscious eyes of the soul. As a high school student, I was asked to help with the Junior Miss America Pageant in Mobile, Alabama, where I grew up. A nationally televised event, it was a "Miss America-like" contest between outstanding high school girls from every state who'd won many other contests to be their state's Junior Miss America. I and several additional high school guys had the honor of escorting the contestants out on stage.

One year, I was to escort the Junior Miss America of North Carolina. I fell head over heels for her. She was stunning and very nice to me. We laughed; she was a bit nervous; we had a rapport. But I dared not take it any further because she was out of my league. She was golden, and I was only tin. This was my ego's judgment, but paradoxically, it was from the same ego that also judged others as lesser than I. The ego assigns people to categories like a play director casts people in roles. The problem is that our ego distorts the world to fit the beliefs of its story and casts some people in error. Therefore, we often cannot see others for who they really are or ourselves for who we really are.

I look back on that situation and, through the eyes of my soul, see two kids who were finding out who they were. One was not better than the other; they were both human beings who were in different life situations at that time. Had I not "othered' that lovely young lady, maybe we both wouldn't have missed out on knowing each other better.

Inquiry: Who do you other as being better than you? Why?

Dear God,

You show me repeatedly that we are all on an even playing field if we see ourselves through the eyes of our soul. I pray to look through those eyes at everything. Amen

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