Leave the Labels to Boxes

I was asked once, ” So I saw your blog and I wanted to ask you, are you a Buddhist?”

My answer?  I don’t know what your definition of a Buddhist is so I can’t really answer that. I thought to myself,  I don’t want to marry myself to someone else’s idea of  Buddhism.  Or any “ism” for that matter.  My Blog is not about being a Buddhist, or about *being* anything, it is about BEING.  Pure and simple.   Just BEING.  Furthermore, I really don’t like labels.

Could I have easily answered, “Yes I am” or “No, I am not.”? Sure, but then I would’ve just been looking to end the conversation rather than give an honest answer.

This idea of boxes and labels is not exclusive to “spiritual” aspects of ourselves, but it is an agenda that is pushed everywhere.  Even by the ones who consider themselves to be radicals and to be enlightened.  I mean, what is the point  to getting out of the box… to only then, jump into another box.  Why? Because that box tells you only the cool ones jump in here? the rebels? It has all the answers?

Case in point,

Are you a homeschooler? Are you an unschooler?  Are you a radical unschooler? Make sure you are careful when you enter this arena because you risk offending just about anyone.   Are you a Buddhist?  are you a liberal? are you conservative?  are you a libertarian?

I don’t see how it is possible to BE everything of ONE thing.  It just doesn’t seem logical, human and frankly, honest.  And it is absurd to demand that of yourself and of another human being.  Whether you admit it to yourself or not, there are a million nuances within those millions of choices that you make every day that contradict the label you’ve put over your head.  Maybe some of us are better at fitting ourselves into boxes.  It feels safe and it is what we, for whatever reason need at that particular moment.  But I really don’t respond well to labels, being labeled, labeling or seeing people try so desperately to do what… well, what the label says.

Why see people through a narrow prism of black and white?.   Most importantly, why see yourself that way? A life where your actions, my actions are decided, valued and judged based on which box we are in.  Based on whether or not I am meeting all the bullet points in your mental clip-board?  The Uncool box? Or the Rebel Box? Why? Because it meets some need to be “right”?  to feel superior and correct and like we have all the answers.  Let me say this, I don’t worry about the people with all the questions… I worry about the ones who think they have all the answers.  Militant views fail the person who has the views, more so than the one who is receiving them.

For the record,

I home educate my children. I am not a homeschooler.

I love, know and trust my children to learn.  They are free to learn and Be.  I am not an unschooler.

I don’t subscribe to -isms and I am certainly not a box.  Don’t label me.

I am a happy, box-free, dust of the earth made up of stars busy being.

I AM.  I simply AM.  And it’s okay…

to just BE.