Pardon me while I get this off my chest. It’s not complete. Just a vent of sorts…

LABEL THIS.

Lately I have found myself doing it again. I slapped a title on that which I didn’t understand. I did it subconsciously at first, I called it crazy, I declared it insane. This was directed at a fellow human being, and I didn’t even catch it at first. That was just one of the labels I have used in recent weeks. I have labeled them in my mind, in text, and in person. I have looked at fellow human beings and titled them odd, strange, fat, gay, christian, redneck, smart, attractive, idiot, conservative, liberal, and obscene. Some of these titles I placed upon them, and others I simply heard them call themselves.

Labels lend a certain quality, and can be used correctly. They can be used to define food, rate places, and clarify things. They can be used as praise, warn of danger, and are indispensable in navigating this strange world of ours.

But when applied to a person they carry a greater and more dangerous weight. I heard a man yell at another man with a word that signified who he thought he was. It didn’t end well. I saw a post online, where a person spouted off a defense of her own label, one she was proud to carry, without seeing the hurt that it caused to others who found it off-putting. I saw a downright disdain for a whole group of people, with others defending the same. They fought about this label, some claimed it as their own, and others cast it to the ground.

Labels are killing communication.

I have a friend, let’s call him Timothy. He and I are close, we enjoy our times together, and we hang as often as we can. He enjoys many things that I do, we share various similar interests and affairs. However, he prefers more time alone, I prefer more time around others. Sometimes our interests don’t always meet and we go our separate ways. I don’t label him. He doesn’t label me. Others would.

There is another, a very outspoken young lady, who is very adamant about her sexes’ strength. She is smart, intelligent, and very good at defending her point of view. Some might call her militant, feminist, sexist. But I don’t, and she doesn’t. She is so much more than that label would entail. She is loving, kind, and very fair in all that she does. Even those labels are just a piece of all that she is.

When I meet others they might pick up that I have a faith in God. They might pick up that I believe in things that others might call insane. But they might also discuss the turning of the sun, or the way that beer is made, and we might get to know each other as human beings first. I try not to label myself. Not because I am ashamed or afraid of what I believe, or of what others might think of me. I don’t want to use a title that might not really contain all of me.

Titles can hurt.  They can be misleading, and they really don’t define who you are as a person. As a member of this human race. As a fellow soul on earth.

American. A very common title when traveling the world. I call myself it to define where I am from. I say I want to take that label, almost as a flag, and carry myself as an example, an ambassador of that place. But that doesn’t change the effect of that eight letter word. I can see the walls go up, the smiles grow large or small, and I can see a difference in how I am perceived. Not because of how that word appears in my head, but how it makes the other feel.

Labels are flags. And every time you chose one to bear, or to plant, you are taking, giving and bestowing power and weakness upon the one you choose to define. This applies to oneself, and to others. They are poor representations of the greater whole. All the pieces of everyone amount to a much, much, more interesting human soul.

Labels are simply a box. A very small box, and not indicative of the greater complexity that each and every human being is… A label is not yours even if you own it. A label is what it represents in the mind of the beholder. They own your definition, and no matter how much you try to say it defines you for you, it doesn’t. It defines you for them.

Choose your words carefully. For fun, for good, for pride, or for spite, these words hold the power to hold the person inside.