An Unexpected Lesson, A Satisfying Day

With each day I attempt to glean a bit of wisdom or knowledge from something that happened in order to make it a day that I deem worthwhile. I want to take something away from all of my experiences and on days when I do not feel I've succeeded I feel as though I've wasted 24 hours of my precious, God given time. I almost consider days like this sinful because I only have a little time and I cannot get it back when wasted. 
Today was one of those wasted days until around 7 pm. I got a call from a friend asking a small favor. After courtesies I asked how she was doing and the conversation turned to talk of boredom and opportunity. She, being from the city, was incredibly bored with our lackluster surroundings. I was the opportunist. The city in which we currently live is small and has the cultural diversity of a sinkhole, but where there is lack of eventfulness and stimulation, opportunity arises. In cities like Chicago, there is incredible opportunity for entertainment and exchange/interaction of ideas. There is always mental stimulation. When that is taken away, there is a door opened that breathes whispers of change and chance for creation. Where there is lack, there is an occasion worth taking advantage of to fill a void with one's own ideas without competition or comparison. Just as in terrestrial drought, starvation of the mind is debilitating and can have long lasting side effects. Filling such a void through creative means not only makes for a much needed metaphysical precipitation, but it demands an instigation of novel and unique culture if the creative solution can remain in an atmosphere of maintenance. In such a case, the drought becomes insignificant in the wake of earnest minds bringing their own precipitation to water the sprouting idea.
 Having grown up in cultural desolation, I realized this truth beforehand, but what I gleaned from her contribution was that my depravity had become a pathogen of thought. It consumed the minds of the vast majority of people I interacted with and it had been in my system long enough to blind me. I attempt to be open and non-judgmental but my environment forbade me from recuperating from my disease. I felt convicted, realizing that I had committed a crime which most in my environment share guilt for. I so wish that my judgment had not been quick. She reminded me to be careful. She reminded me of something that I've said myself. Most people do the best they can with what they've been given: the actions they take, just manifestations of their personality and learned responses to external stimuli. Whether those responses are right or wrong is of little importance, the significance lies in the fact that most people feel that they have to behave in that certain way, they consciously or unconsciously expect a particular outcome because of their action, and they either believe they are correct in their justification without a shadow of doubt, or they see no other options. 
This reality hit me hard enough to take me aback and make my consciousness aware of my hypocrisy. I, who tell others not to judge, passed judgment too quickly and laughed at those who more than likely are doing the best they know how with the hand they've been dealt. Instead of ridicule, my reaction should have been to ask why. 
Why did they do what they did and what has happened in their lives to teach them that their rationale was sound? Ignorance is never a laughable subject in any context. React with intelligence and refrain from jest. Educate instead with the light of perspective and knowledge passed their ignorance taking into consideration that someone loved you enough to educate you in the same way. Let not knowledge be confused with intellect and become a denominator of people into groups of exclusivity. Erase your boundaries and realize that everyone has something that THEY can teach YOU.