Tags...Not for your toe

When I read blogs, and I do, I read several over the course of any given day and I am constantly looking for tags or for labels if you will. This is no news to you but these help me to get to where I want to go, to see what I want to see. They're pretty helpful as long as the tag is a true marker for what the content is really all about otherwise they're useless. When I buy an article of clothing the tag is extremely important because I need to know if this body of mine will fit into the item. I don't know about you but there have been times when I've gotten home only to discover that the item was mis-marked or labeled wrong and it's never enjoyable. Once again, tags are of no value if they are wrong.

Ever since I can remember remembering, there have been tags placed on people as well. The difference that I have found with most tags that are on people is that they are usually wrong, not once in a while, usually, however occasionally a true marker or indicator. What I've also noticed is that different cultures have different tags. It seems as if this tagging system when applied to people is often times an indication of what we don't want as opposed to what we do and the sad part about this is if we don't look further than the tag we often times avoid for no real reason. Society has taught us that certain words, or tags, are not what the "normal" person wants and because of this tutoring there are times when the tagged individual along with the tagger and the public actually believe it. Even though Human Rights organizations have all but banned prejudices they still exist and very few of us can truly say we have none; unfortunately I'm not one of those very few. I guess I was schooled by a society of masters but I try.

I was born like most of the world, with a heart, a brain, some skin and internal organs that keep my body functioning. Lets be real here, a liver is a liver, lung tissue is lung tissue, fingernails are fingernails and when all of this mess is put together it is classified as a person, a human being. Sure, skin has variations of color, some hair is more coarse than other hair, some people have toes that overlap and some have slighter frames than others just to name a few distinctions...but despite these minute differences...when it's all put together it's still a person; perhaps somewhat different in appearance than you or I but a person. Now, once we get past the physical aspect this is where the differences really start to show themselves. This is the part of us we call personality, my belief is that this is acquired as we grow and we have the ability to alter it some. This could be the fun part because just like our templates, we can tweak it to near where we want it; yet rarely perfect it. Next comes emotion. Emotion that is brought on by physical pleasure or pain cannot be helped, it just happens. BUT, some emotions are learned, taught to us, this I truly believe. We begin learning from the moment we are born into this world. The infant in the crib who feels uncomfortable out of hunger and cries until fed, they've now learned what crying might get them. Do kids hate? Not until they're taught. And guess who's giving them these wonderful lessons, you got it, we are...why?...because that's what we were taught. It seems to me as if the teaching of certain subjects needs to end and the introduction of others needs to begin.

OK, now that I've gotten all that out I can get to the point I was attempting to make 5 minutes ago. What I try to do when I see someone who is different from me, someone who has an obvious tag hanging from their neck is to try to remember that I was born just like them and the rest of who they are merely comes from what they've been taught. As far as the tag goes? I just try to ignore it hoping that it's mis-labeled. And until they teach me differently, I have no intention to judge anyone for anything. I can only wish that the tag(s) around my neck are never a hindrance or concern to anyone until they know me.