Thoughts Along the Way

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Thinking about Labels

I've never been one who likes labels for people.

Oh, yeah, I've been guilty of using them for other people, but I have never liked having them applied to me. Labels are so confining and miss the fullness and uniqueness of a person. They can help begin understanding, but they never can fully encapsulate the person it is placed. on.

Some labels that can be and have been applied to me are Stay-at-Home Mom, Homeschooler, Bread baker, Christian, Republican, Blogger... you get the picture. Each one of those labels forms a picture in your head of what I am like. Now, your picture may be different from someone else's depending on what your thoughts and experiences have been with others with the same labels. But, those labels can never fully describe who I am and how those different parts of me actually look walked out in my life. They can cause assumptions. And you know what they say about assumptions.....

When I don't really know someone, the labels can help begin the conversation of getting to know each other. They can be a good starting point. But when the conversation does not go beyond the labels, there is not true knowledge of the person. You are not truly known.

In a book I'm reading the author talked about forming friendships with people is about being known to that person and knowing them in a personal way. It is not about changing them. That is big.

It is so much easier to slap a label on someone and hold them to that label if we do not really know them. And it goes the other way, too. When they do not really know us, they tend to just see our labels and not what is underneath.

A friend and I were talking this morning about how many women are on anti-depressants. It seems that almost everyone you meet is on some form of medication to help them make it through their day. I have to wonder, how much of that is brought on by living with so many labels and trying to hide behind them, or to live up to them?

To know and to be known...

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - Wow!