This is a view from the balcony of my new place. Hot Shot is one of the horses I care for, a Missouri Foxtrotter, and he is a horse with an attitude. Did he get his name because he acts like a hot shot, or does he act like a hot shot because he got the name?
A friend and I were talking the other day and she mentioned the biblical story of Adam naming the animals in the Garden of Eden. I commented that the ability to name is both a blessing and a curse. How much does labeling help us and how much does it limit us?
I have experienced the power of labels, both negatively and positively–mostly negatively. I find it difficult to step out of a label once embraced, or to allow others to step out of the labels I have put on them. I embraced some labels that I have since outgrown. Shedding them has been something akin to shedding my skin. At the same time, there are labels that I aspire to embrace. I want to be a kind, authentic person of integrity, for example.
So many words…
I think words often get in the way. Maybe even the words “negatively” and “positively” get in the way. Rumi says, “Out beyond ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, and even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.” (translated by Coleman Banks, The Essential Rumi)
What would life be like in that field? What would our relationships be like? Who would I be out beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing?
Who would you be?
