Day 261: live, let live.

One of the things I like most about the people in New York (at least from what I've seen of them) is that they let other people be who they are and do what they want with very little judgment. Whether this is because they are open minded, or just so self-centred that they genuinely couldn't give a rat's what other people do (unless it affects them), I'm not entirely sure. Whatever the case, people don't give you shit for dressing a certain way, liking certain music, eating or not eating certain things, drinking or not drinking alcohol. They let you get on with it. Since being back in Sydney, I've noticed a different attitude entirely. Whether it's people bitching about others for no good reason, or being asked what's wrong with me that makes me want to be vegan, or having mince meat brandished at me as an example of what I'm missing out on, or being vocally pitied for not drinking (while having wine breath huffed in my face), I've noticed that people here seem to have a hard time accepting it if you don't do things the way they do. I know nobody means any harm. But we could all have so much more of an interesting and productive time if we started focusing less on trying to stop people from doing things that really don't need stopping, and more on... just about anything else. There are enough real obstacles to our achieving amazing things or happiness without having people add other silly ones. I have been completely guilty in my time of judging and bitching and thinking people are stupid for doing things, but I think I'm ready to stop. There are too many other things to be doing, to be wasting any precious energy on stuff like that.