Reality Shows

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I have been watching a number of reality shows ~ or rather documentaries ~  on TV where people who are fairly well-off were followed when they were taken out of there regular environment and placed in a community where people are struggling to get by.
The rules are that for ten days, these people need to find jobs or help out as a volunteer someplace of their choice so that they can meet ‘the other half’ of society. After ten days, they then make themselves known and help out those organizations or people who make a difference in their community.

The most interesting thing to me is that, after the initial shock of leaving the lap of luxury behind ~ all of the people seem to experience much more of a sense of community than they are used to while living their own lives. And as they themselves are portrayed as someone who just moved into the neighborhood and now need to find a job ~ usually in an area where openings aren’t as abundant as one would hope ~ they also find that the people they meet are quite willing to share what little they have; just to help another human being...
And in each of these reality shows, that is the second shock the person who is followed through this process gets to deal with ~ sort of like a one-two punch...

It brings home the fact that people hardly ever are who or what they seem to be.

This is true in day-to-day life, as well as when we look at the circumstances and situations we ~ or other people ~ may find themselves in. The things that are easy to comprehend to one person, can be some kind of ‘abacadabra’ to the next. Situations that are incredibly hard to handle for one, may be a ‘piece of cake’ for another...

From a spiritual perspective it boils down to the fact that ultimately no-one knows what karmic package any other person has taken on for this life experience what lessons to learn, what realizations to come to, or discoveries to make about themselves.

What it does tell us is that we shouldn’t judge people as we don’t know where they are coming from, what they are coping with and so on.
And then it is not just about the judgements like ‘he is rich’, or ‘she is poor’, good, bad, lazy, a workaholic and on and on...
It is also about the judgements that say: ‘I understand that he/she is in a difficult situation, but why aren’t they just doing this or that to change their lives around?’ Or: ‘Why can’t they see that it is their own behavior that gets them in that situation...?’

Truth of the matter is that the other person may not know how to handle the space he or she is in right now ~ but unlike the reality shows on TV, we do not know what is at play...
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