's Blogs

Hail and welcome! This is Huginn's Heathen Hof, with your Daily Hávamál.

Original-
Vesall maðr
ok illa skapi
hlær at hvívetna
hitki hann veit
er hann vita þyrpti
at hann era vamma vanr

Translation-
Only a foolish man
mocks everyone
while failing to see
the faults in himself
-Hávamál: Stanza 22

Nobody is perfect. It seems like that would be an easy concept to live with, but sometimes our emotions get the better of us and we can forget this simple fact. It's easy to judge someone else's failings more harshly than our own. We all do it.
We’re sitting at home on our favorite piece of overly plush furniture, watching Survivor, and somebody does something that seems REMARKABLY stupid. As we wince at their poor life choices, one can't help but think, “I could have done that better.” We revel in Schadenfreude and reassure ourselves that we would never be that dumb. We do it all the time.
We get stuck in traffic and ask ourselves "Why can't any of these idiots take the bus?!", because our own reasons for taking a car seem so much more reasonable and important in that moment.
We see a co-worker running late and we judge them for their tardiness, but when we ourselves are running behind we always have the best of reasons...
It's so easy to fall into this trap. We overlook our own shortcomings rather than improving ourselves, and tell ourselves that it's ok because everybody else is even worse. Don't fall for it. Odin tells us throughout this poem that we are responsible for our own actions, and that our lives are known through our deeds. If we are to improve ourselves and make something of our lives, then we need to be willing to confront our own faults rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by the faults of others.