Labels

I'm growing more and more disdain for labels that "we" (society) puts on everyone and everything.  We label each other to the nth degree and can't see that we're all just human beings trying to live the best life we can...just like us.  We're putting people in boxes, corners and pitting one against the other because they're "labeled" this or that.  I'm so over it!

Why can't we just see one another for who we are without all the labels?  Why do we have to put up so many obstacles or borders around ourselves in order to let people see who we really are...or is it a defensive mechanism that we do it?  Are we boldly displaying our labels in order to keep others out?  These days it's hard to tell which is which.  Sigh.  

In the news recently, Sandra Bullock told In Style magazine that she wished people would stop saying "adopted kids" because we don't label our birth kids or one-night-stand kids, etc.  It's true.  Families come in all shapes and sizes and that includes how they were conceived or put together.  But, in the end parents are parents to a child whether they gave birth to them or not.  Parents can be a mother and a father, a mother and a mother or a father and a father.  They can also be siblings raising their younger siblings.  It's all about having a loving and supportive parent to help you grow, learn, and love.  It doesn't matter what or how that looks like and we shouldn't judge other families for not looking the way we think they should look.  We should all just be given the opportunity to build and create loving families of our own because we all deserve that.

I think those that have adopted, are adopted or are thinking about adopting get it.  They know what makes a family.  It's those that won't open their minds to what real families look like now that tend to show their hate and intolerance for others.  And, for some reason many of them feel compelled or think they have the right to share their hate online which is incomprehensible.  I've read some of the cruel and nasty posts people have made online about Sandra Bullock adopting two kids and saying that she's not a real mother.  How dare they!!  Those are the kind of people that need to keep their comments to themselves and also expose themselves to more families that are different from what they "consider" to be "normal" families.  They need to educate themselves and actually listen to other people for a change.

So, if you can just for one week...try to see those that you see and meet this week without putting a label on them.  Try stripping away our societal reflex of putting everyone we see and meet into boxes that we've created in our minds.  See if it changes the way you see people or at least maybe it'll make you aware of all the labels you are putting on people without even meeting them.

Have a blessed and maybe eye-opening week ahead!!