This seems to be rampant these days, everybody has an opinion and they'd like to share it with you and I'm no different, I guess, though I do like to think about what I put out there some, maybe edit it a little bit, before I hit the Send or Save or Save And Publish button.
But, if you think about it, armchair quarterbacking is about all we can do on a lot of things, issues, happenings, events, trends, etc. We're not there, we can't change it, our word is not listened to, so we differ with the call that the coach made and the players enacted.
I am constantly critiquing everything around me, judging it, finding its flaws and analyzing its strengths. I can't say what I'd do if I were in any situation I'm analyzing but that is a moot, almost ridiculous, point. I'm not there, can't be there, am not allowed to be there, etc.
Dig- if I go into a restaurant and critique the food, or pass through a town and critique its inhabitants, I'm just doing what everybody else is doing anyway. We ALL use human GPS, which is short for Game Positioning System, it's how we slot ourselves into the pack. We gauge things like looks, weight, body type, skin color, age, gender, ethnicity, and education and then everything that the players do we observe and critique.
So, this habit of ours makes it very hard to let go and just allow things to be, because armchair quarterbacking is sort of an ongoing argument against What Is for our critiques are never entirely neutral. It's "Yes, that's good", and "No, that's not okay", and so on, with everything.
Mirror image
Luke Braswell- Unsplash.com
Even if you take up a cause and fight for it, you can only do so much. You'll grow old and burn out eventually. The World will continue on and surely do some other thing that annoys, delights, or puzzles you.
Life is a movie that never reaches The End, it just keeps on playing and if you think you've hit The End that's only intermission, one of many, so I don't know if judgement ever stops. It might always be there. Even Jesus was tempted to armchair quarterback now and again, perhaps. But, he couldn't have paid much attention to it. "Just a thought". Nothing to follow or act upon because unconditional love calls for absolute non-judgement.
And that's the key to the whole thing, isn't it? Judgement can only happen when you've followed a thought too far, held onto it, and didn't let it go. "Ooops!" That's what you get when you daydream in the dream!
We armchair quarterback only because there is still something within us that wants things to change, because judgement is our attempt to control things, even if it's just in thinking about them. Letting go of all judgement would be like letting go of our identities. Ah- THAT'S it, isn't it? Separate selves can judge things, while people that see themselves as part of the whole, like Jesus did, can't. The loss of self importance is the gain of equanimity.
The absolute diminishment of ego.
But, who really wants to go there, and lose what little 'power' they have?
"I may be tiny in the scheme of things, but from my armchair, I can (in my mind) rule the world!
But even that little bit of satisfaction pales over time because ruling the world in one's own mind is done all alone and all alone is not very juicy. Who would want to keep watching that movie?
Armchair quarterbacking might be the ego's last stand before once again the imaginary self mergers into The Self, the gestalt, the soup of being. No judgement possible there! Guess that's where we're going, all the sensible books say that, but until then, I'll keep part of this tiny little spark called 'me' alive and right here in my overstuffed armchair. I'll strap on my seatbelt, and cue up The News.
Or maybe I'll pull away from that, and watch a sunset instead.
I'm torn, see, between two poles, and this is probably true for most people. "Yes I want to go there" and "No, not today!". Identity is the fulcrum upon which we balance our sense of self. Do I want MORE identity right now, or LESS? What feels better? My suggestion is to do whatever keeps you on an even keel. Stay in balance. That's the most important thing. When you're ready for more of being less, you'll know!
We're all waffling back and forth, flickering like light bulbs on and off. "Yes I'm a me!" and "Maybe- I'm not?!"
Too many quiet moments can be destabilizing for some.
It'll all make perfect sense someday, I think.