What labels have been applied to you over your lifetime?
Did you like them all, approve of them all? Probably not.
What labels would you prefer?
A wise history professor I learned from during my M.A. studies said, "Labels say far more about the person applying them than about the person upon whom they are applied." Jim North was correct and I've been enlightened by that ever since.
If you say I'm conservative, you're really saying
you're more liberal than I am. If you say I'm liberal, you're saying you are more conservative than I.
And then, what do those actual words mean and do we use them properly? Possibly not.
If you say I am younger, you are not necessarily saying I am young.
If you flatter me with a comment about weight loss, you are not necessarily saying I'm lean and svelte, but only that I'm not as big as I was.
I've been called a feminist, but that of course was by a man. A real feminist wouldn't waste her spit on me!
If you say I am clever, I'd want to consider your ability to judge that before I knew where to place myself on the continuum.
We could get in to politics, religion and all kinds of human rights areas. Labels abound without really adding much to the conversation.
Labels on the outside of church buildings no longer tell you much about what is inside. There are so many flavours of each label that the names are nearly meaningless now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a thing.
I'm a fundamentalist, but that's more true of my approach to gardening, reading and camping than it is to my religion. Somehow fundamentalists have gotten a bad wrap.
I prefer using good soil and quality seeds or cuttings rather than exotic hybrids and lots of chemicals.
I prefer books, preloved and smelling of long life, over reading digitally, but that may be only because I have not yet tried a Kindle. I'm a fundamentalist when it comes to my reading. I need good light, a good chair, a good book . . . and now, my reading glasses.
Am I a republican or a democrat, and was that with a little r/d or a capital R/D? In New Zealand a republican is altogether different from an American Republican. Again, there's a plethora of meanings for both those words.
People might say I'm religious, but only about brushing my teeth. My walk of faith doesn't look much like a religion if you compare me to a faithful Muslim, an orthodox Jew or a devout Catholic in a small village in Italy.
So let's be careful the labels we apply, and let's be selective of the labels we accept.
Did you like them all, approve of them all? Probably not.
What labels would you prefer?
A wise history professor I learned from during my M.A. studies said, "Labels say far more about the person applying them than about the person upon whom they are applied." Jim North was correct and I've been enlightened by that ever since.
If you say I'm conservative, you're really saying
you're more liberal than I am. If you say I'm liberal, you're saying you are more conservative than I. And then, what do those actual words mean and do we use them properly? Possibly not.
If you say I am younger, you are not necessarily saying I am young.
If you flatter me with a comment about weight loss, you are not necessarily saying I'm lean and svelte, but only that I'm not as big as I was.
I've been called a feminist, but that of course was by a man. A real feminist wouldn't waste her spit on me!
If you say I am clever, I'd want to consider your ability to judge that before I knew where to place myself on the continuum.
We could get in to politics, religion and all kinds of human rights areas. Labels abound without really adding much to the conversation.
Labels on the outside of church buildings no longer tell you much about what is inside. There are so many flavours of each label that the names are nearly meaningless now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a thing.
I'm a fundamentalist, but that's more true of my approach to gardening, reading and camping than it is to my religion. Somehow fundamentalists have gotten a bad wrap.
I prefer using good soil and quality seeds or cuttings rather than exotic hybrids and lots of chemicals.
I prefer books, preloved and smelling of long life, over reading digitally, but that may be only because I have not yet tried a Kindle. I'm a fundamentalist when it comes to my reading. I need good light, a good chair, a good book . . . and now, my reading glasses.
Am I a republican or a democrat, and was that with a little r/d or a capital R/D? In New Zealand a republican is altogether different from an American Republican. Again, there's a plethora of meanings for both those words.
People might say I'm religious, but only about brushing my teeth. My walk of faith doesn't look much like a religion if you compare me to a faithful Muslim, an orthodox Jew or a devout Catholic in a small village in Italy.
So let's be careful the labels we apply, and let's be selective of the labels we accept.
Comments