Who Are We To Judge?

Have you ever noticed, my friend
how parsimonious perfectly decent
people are in recognizing good in
others to the extent that it becomes
clear an inherent meanness of spirit
overcomes the potential to compliment
others as a nasty little imp within
urges restraint lest one's admission
of admiration take away from their
own sense of accomplishment in any
arena where the slightest hint of
competition raises the social hackles
of those perfectly decent people. In
acknowledging that very human
failing are we directed from within
to judge, to hold that individual in
less esteem than we would like? One
wonders if one's own forbearance
and the preference to express admiration
where due would then become somewhat
compromised, making of one in essence
little more than complicit with the
narrow-minded whose inability
to give credit where due represents
the measure of their compatibility
with the golden mean and the injunction
to do unto others, of such value to us.