I stumbled upon posts and fell into a rabbit hole and then into another one. I have had glimpses of it before, but now it feels like it is getting worse. Out there in the big scary world. At times it feels like I am too old for this world – it’s hard to understand sometimes and the more I read – the more confused I get.
I know it might cost me some readers and line up haters. I might offend someone without realising it myself, so I thought about it a while should or shouldn’t I publish this. And then I remembered that this is my blog, about my thoughts and wonders.
I struggle with all the labels thrown around and the demand of accepting them as identifiers. The idea that some label should give me all the information about what kind of person I am talking with seems surreal. Maybe, but wouldn’t this requier that the label means exactly the same for everyone who use it to describe themselves. But humans tend to be more complicated than that.
If I say I am a woman – do you know who I am? What I like or don’t? Does it tell you am I nice or a bitch? I bet not. If you haven’t directly interacted with me – you have no idea what am I like. So I am really puzzled by the large groups of people who demand that one word identifies who they are.
I really don’t care (and believe most people don’t) what is underneath your clothes or with who you sleep with. Unless you want to sleep with me – do I and everyone in the world really really have to know about this? That still doesn’t tell me are you a good person. That doesn’t tell me do we have common interests or beliefs.
When I was young, we were thought that people can be described by several words and labels. Because words like white, black, irish, estonian, poet, writer, runner, boxer lawyer, doctor – they just punch of words we can use to describe ourselves, but none of them fully identifies who we are as a person and human being.
When I look around and read stories from around the world I see confusion all around. We have become so obsessed with finding the label to identify ourselves we keep making up new ones, since the existing ones won’t describe us enough.
But no single word can describe a person. Unless you are Cher or something. But even then only if everybody knows Cher – otherwise you will need a lot of words to describe her. A lot of words!
But that’s how it’s supposed to be. We are living beings, in constant development, affected by our experiences and interactions with other people. We can’t be identified with just one label, because we are changing all the time as long as we are alive.
And I know it seems like a waste of time to really talk and get to know other people – it would be easier just to sum up the whole being with one label or sentences. Quicker.
But what should we be trying to save – time or ourselves. The pressure of finding this one label to sum up all that we are is huge. And what if – after finding it, announcing it to the world, defending it – we change?
Why can’t we just accept that we all are unique in our own way and that’s ok. That we should care more about the real person inside than any outside label.
For now I am a blogger driven by dreams, loving poetry and writing and reading. I like nature and technology and living in my own small bubble with people I love. I am not the same person I was 5 years ago and hopefully not the same in 5 years. I have learned to battle on my own and support others, and still learning to be supported myself. But that’s not all I am.
I will leave you with a link to YouTube to a song that sums up the post nicely. And though it has some distinctive words, just replace them with the opposite and it still applies. (Maybe won’t rhyme as good).
I believe you wont have hated because of this 😅 but in this day and age, I guess we never know for sure 😂 I agree with you, one word or a bunch of words stitched together say nothing about who we are or the quality of our character. These days when I see or hear people come up with a million words (eg “poet, writer, speaker, mental health advocate” etc etc), I take it as a caution sign ðŸ¤
I hope, but never know so prepare for worse 🙂
Many words combined as sentences can give some idea, at least describe a part of the person. But most of people have at least personal and work images, some have several depending on role or surrounding people.