Do I Have To (Get To) Be The First?

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How is it possible, tell me true,

That no one's seen what I see? Who

Has looked at ethics, suffering, and pain,

At how we judge and judge again?

Who's studied self-help books galore,

Who's looked at judgment to its core?

Thousands of brilliant minds have plied,

Yet this distinction wasn't spied!

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How has this stayed so hidden forever?

So easy, once seen, yet not found by the clever!

Assessment and judgment—they're not the same!

One shows us the truth; the other lays blame!

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The self-help books, they stay in the game,

They swap what's good with what gets the shame.

But not one author stopped to see:

Judgment’s still there—just new debris!

They give you new scorecards, new rules to obey,

While judging adds poison to all of your plays!

Byron Katie saw it causes suffering, yes,

Yet still didn't name the grand source of distress!

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How has this stayed so hidden forever?

So easy, once seen, yet not found by the clever!

Assessment and judgment—they're not the same!

One shows us the truth; the other lays blame!

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Assessment is factual—what works, what is true,

What's needed now and what we could do.

Judgmentalness is the overlay, the moral shade,

The good/bad coloring that just gets in the way.

Separable! Clean! Any person can see,

Once pointed out: "Oh yes! They're so differently!"

Yet no brilliant thinker had come forward to name it,

No writer has appeared to explain and declaim it!

 

How has this stayed so hidden forever?

So easy, once seen, yet not seen by the clever!

Assessment and judgment—they're not the same!

One shows us the truth; the other lays blame!

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Civilization can thrive on assessment alone,

Without judgment to pollute what is easily shown.

Schools could grade, courts could decide, markets could flow,

With assessment alone—praise and blame to forgo.

Once you see it, it's so obvious and clear,

Assessment and judgment don't mix here,

Assessment brings happiness and results that endure,

While judgment hurts and destroys—that’s for sure,

How could I be the first for all this to share,

To find these distinctions, though they’re resting right there?!

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How has this stayed so hidden forever?

So easy, once seen, yet not found by the clever!

Assessment and judgment—they're not the same!

One shows us the truth; the other lays blame!

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My early choice to stand apart,

To claim a singular, special heart,

Freed me from the systems that would bind,

Kept me outside what blinds the mind.

I had no framework left to defend,

No expertise that'd have to bend.

So I could see what others couldn't see—

Because I chose to be just me.

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How has this stayed so hidden forever?

So easy, once seen, yet not found by the clever!

Assessment and judgment—they're not the same!

One shows us the truth; the other lays blame!