I was wondering the other day where the phrase “Mad as a March Hare” comes from. Apparently, the behaviour of hares during March becomes most peculiar - they are seen “boxing” each other, leaping vertically off the ground, and generally behaving in a pretty eccentric manner.
Traditionally, this was viewed as “madness” and it was only once people studied hares carefully that they realised this was courtship behaviour, and entirely explicable and natural. Completely normal: more than that - crucially important - if you happen to be a hare of reproductive age!! To the uninformed eye though, it just looked crazy, until we understood - by taking the time to learn - the hares’ motivation.
The things which are crucially important to us may seem mystifying or even a bit weird to other people. It can be easy to observe someone else’s behaviour and conclude that their priorities or interests are just a bit odd, because we haven’t taken the time to find out about them. We judge others, maybe dismiss them, because they don’t see things the way we do. As someone with no real interest in sport, I find the almost religious fervour with which some people follow their football teams each season very odd indeed. No doubt some of them would feel the same way about my interest in the church seasons! We just don’t really understand one another’s motivations and pre-occupations.
My natural assumption, if I see something that looks odd to me, is to assume that it is odd. I need to learn to widen my perspectives, slow right down, and spend time finding out what is really going on before I label someone else’s choices as “odd” or “mad” or “weird”. During Lent (which starts on March 4th) my project this year is to try to judge less, and to show more compassionate curiosity about people who see things and do things differently.
I’m going to be doing my best to avoid knee jerk reactions, to take time to learn about other perspectives - not so that I can prove myself right, but so that I can see other people more clearly. I’m going to start by reading the newspapers I disagree with!
Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
I wonder if there is someone whose perspectives you find “mad”? Someone you would quite like to “set straight” or “sort out”? Or whether you have habits or priorities that other people find unfathomable? I wonder whether we can all find better ways of communicating with one another, seeing one another clearly and taking the time to find out what really lies behind another person’s behaviour, rather than rushing to label them.
May you find joy, and new connection, by taking time to engage with someone else’s perspective. And if you see any boxing hares out in the fields, I’d love to hear about it!
Every Blessing
Revd Kalantha