No Labels!

While watching the documentary on Netflix called American Commune, I saw something that touched me so deeply that I began to cry. In the 1970s, 300 young people caravanned from San Francisco in buses to a small rural area in Tennessee to start a commune that would come to be called The Farm. One of their new neighbors related that she hid in a closet out of fear they would kill her. She was so afraid of “Hippies.” That label led her to believe untruthful and frightening things about a group of young people who were not a threat to anyone in any way.

I realized we humans use labels to categorize each other and saw how detrimental that is to us individually and as a society. It puts those people, and other things we label, in a box constructed by our minds and leaves little room for exploration or even understanding of them.

Labels make us lazy. We don’t look past the labels to discover the truth about what we’re labeling, and we make assumptions.

Some examples of labels are:

• Old woman and old man
• Young woman (yes, think about this one; it’s also Ageist)
• Liberal
• Conservative
• Redneck
• Snowflake
• Woke
• Republican
• Democrat
• Gay
• Buddhist
• Christian
• Muslim

You get the idea. Once we apply a label to someone else, we have a whole set of assumptions that separate us from the person being labeled. Instead of keeping an open mind about them, we become closed and may even fear and hate them.

I refuse to do this any longer, and I will relate to each person as a human being, NOT a label. I’m fairly sure we humans want pretty much the same things from life; a safe and comfortable home base, the funds needed to maintain our life and put food on the table, our families well taken care of, time to play and to love, friends to hang out with, support and share ourselves with, decent and humane healthcare, to name a few. I’m sure you can think of some more.

Others’ views about politics, religion, and race have little bearing on my life and, when discussed, often lead to misunderstandings, arguments, negativity, and even hatred.

Separating ourselves from others because of these differences doesn’t serve us or our planet.

In this time of cultural and planetary upheaval, we need to work together to create a loving and inclusive planet while we still have one.

I’m not suggesting overlooking cruelty, hatred, and environmental crises. No! We must work together to the best of our abilities to save our beautiful Planet Earth and create lives of purpose and passion.

We can start by helping others in need in any way we can, no matter how small. You needn’t be rich to make a difference. Offer someone who needs it a ride, share some excess groceries, save a cat or dog from euthanasia, call a friend to check in and see if they need any help and LISTEN, smile at strangers in the grocery store, help an Elder cross the street, comfort a crying child, recycle, and save water. Consider your daily actions and see if they help or hurt our human community and this beautiful and irreplaceable Earth.

So, remember, we are all in this together, and nobody’s getting out alive. Let’s make our lives count for more and foster peace, cooperation, kindness, and above all, love.