In the words of Alexandre Dumas, “All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.”
I am not publicly known. I am not a sports figure, political or entertainment figure. I have no sponsors, no political party and no next gig that I’m looking to land.
I am a happily re-married mom who has a few things I’d like to say here for the rest of us to consider, debate, and question.
I write this for those of us who have no platform in which to speak, we have little ability to influence a larger majority, and yet, we hope and wish that just by capturing what appears to be obvious to us, it may invite others to hear that there is another conversation that is also happening.
One that is quiet, unseen, unheard, and one that can make a difference if we dare to speak it aloud in our communities.
As soon as we use language to describe something, to name it, we generalize it and give it a label; we separate that thing from the whole. It’s an important tool in communication to be able to name something distinct from another. If I need someone to bring me a cup, I need to name what it is that I’d like them to bring to me. It needs a word that helps the person identify what exactly to look for and retrieve. In this case a ‘cup’.
Labels are also given to people. Some that have been given to me are: author, woman, mom, divorced, and American.
I am a woman. I like and support men, yet there are some men whom I’ve met whose character, words, and behavior I find abhorring, and I’ve also experienced the same in women.
I find that not only have I seen examples of harmful predisposition in the another’s label, but I also have experienced harmful biases in my own.
Language can be used to label, but it can also be used to create, to emote, and to bring new ways of seeing or thinking into existence.
When we use labels to create division, to promote prejudice, cruelty and hate, or to bring fear into existence, we are speaking and breeding harmful energy into the world.
When we use labels to create distinctions for better understanding, to announce healing and forgiveness, and to bring love into existence, we are speaking and breeding helpful energy into the world.
The fact that there are those among us who do not understand or comprehend this unseen truth about language and how it can impact our world is dangerous.
Together we are either creating distinctions or divisions in our speaking: helpful energy or harmful energy. All of us have been labeled. All labels fall short of capturing the full essence of an individual.
It is not because of the labels we’ve been given, rather it is in the capacity we have to embrace these labels as a way to distinguish ourselves or divide ourselves that brings forth the impact, and therefore the power of a label.
We have the power to choose to use our labels to distinguish us or to divide us.
All labels have the capacity to speak harmful energy. All labels have the capacity to speak helpful energy. The ability to speak up in the face of harmful speech closes the door on negative energy’s ability to seep and breed into the world. However, the one who is speaking up must do so from helpful energy (healing, forgiveness or love) in order for it to be effective. If the one speaking up also uses harmful energy as their form of communication, then nothing is thwarted and the negative energy cycle continues.
It’s not because I am labeled an author, a woman, a mom, divorced, or American that distinguishes me.
What distinguishes me is how God made me.
Most of us do not have choice over the labels given to us or how others may use them. God made each of us exactly the way we are for our own life’s purpose. He also gave each of us free will.
I invite us to embrace our labels as a part of God’s masterpiece. We are each a work of art, divinely distinguished, and not divided from the whole. It is God’s design and will.
What if the labels you’ve been given are part of His design in order to fulfill on your life’s purpose? Would you represent your labels with pride? Would you speak them aloud to others? Would you challenge your own label’s biases to serve another’s? Would you wear them as a badge of honor? Would you represent yours well?
Toni McGillen
Copyright©2016