I'm doing 26 things
Maybe puppyness is rubbing off on me – they are up in the darkness of early morning, off into the forest, barking like mad. Something is out there – something they sense does not belong. Not a neighbor leaving for work, but the unfamiliar. They set up a racket. they are joined by roosters and other dogs, and the forest birds awaken and the chorus begins.
I give up on sleep after getting them back into the house, and finding out what boy dog was puking up is a wad of ginger root the size of a baby fist.
More and more I am intrigued by people I have not yet gotten to know here on 43 Things. I am spending more time here because winter is coming to the forest and my hands get too cold to work outside. When it pours rain, the puppies hang about indoors. So here I am. Guess I may as well restart my novel, or a new one, as I sense weeks on end of weather that will keep me in – that or send me driving to the warm.
What I want to talk about is labeling. Self-labeling in particular. Among the more robust concepts that drove the zeitgeist of the Janis Joplin – Cream – Buffalo Springfield era was the idea that we are unique individuals and when we start labeling ourselves, or allowing others to label us, we rob ourselves of our sense of personal being in the world.
Now here in this time and place, the use of labels is almost overwhelming. It seems we have all these diagnostic criteria, invented by a board or committee that interfaced between billing agents for the medical profession and the insurance companies that pay the bills. As if these labels are lovely sophisticated additions to our wardrobe like chic boots, we, or some of us, put them on and parade them about to help explain ourselves, and to help get to know ourselves.
To my way of thinking, this is just another version of the emperor’s new clothes.
While it may be valuable to study the theory behind a certain diagnosis, it is dangerous and self-diminishing to adopt it as one’s self. It is far more beneficial to getting to the root of who and what we are, what makes us tick, and most importantly what we can do to make ourselves more who we want to become ; it brings us much closer to our truth to use actual words to describe our thoughts and feelings and stay away from labels. Especially the labels of psychology, once again, used to cut and divide people into classifications of illness.
Our sense of well being is increased by thoughts of appreciation, for the seeking of grace, for loving and seeking love, and diminished by the idea we fit into pre-formed little boxes meant to drag insurance money into the coffers of so called mental health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry.
this monologue is not intended to dismiss the whole of psychology
I invite comments and would welcome dialogue…
