Ditch the labels

The trouble with labels, and maybe language in general, is that it limits your experience. Labels tend to lead you to pre-judgement, like if you listen to someone who affiliates with the *opposite* political party, you tend to discount their every word. Or like when you go to an Italian restaurant and there on the menu somewhere they offer Thai chicken skewers with rice, you are surprised since this is an Italian place, why would I eat Thai food if I'm here and they probably don't make it very well anyway since it's an Italian restaurant. (People are often surprised that my favorite dish at California Pizza Kitchen is the Chinese Chicken Salad.) So can you see a bit how the label restricts your perception of things, closes your mind in a way?

I think of myself as a liberal, but this is not entirely true, in political tests I score mostly liberal, but also conservative in some areas. So I am truly neither. I am truly both, as, I suspect, are we all. Gay? Straight? Old? Married? Professional? How limiting! You're going to go through your whole life without trying something even once, because you are not that "way". Are you sure? Because you really don't know until you try it. (Admire, won't you, my generous use of platitudes.)

Language is really a system of labels. It defines how we see the world by labeling different things giving them meanings that are shared by all the humans using that language. Many cultural differences are products of the language they speak. There is a kind of bias in the language predisposing you to certain kinds of behaviour/views on the life experience. From those biases, prejudices are built, and in a way we cannot escape. The mind needs language to "think", yet your thinking ability is limited by the words and meanings assigned to them in the language.

The only true meaning comes from your own direct experience. Sure we need labels in order to distinguish gas stations from supermarkets, but some labels foster instant judgement, like lawyer, prostitute, conservative, Christian, lesbian, and Tom Cruise. You can't get away from it, and it's necessary to function in the world.

But here's my advice, don't label yourself.

Because then you are going to say "I'm this kind of person, so I don't do things like that," and poof, you've severely limited your scope of possible experiences on this earth. You've got this one chance to experience things, don't go boxing yourself in by the labels. The only label that should really count is that we are all human.