labels

I am NOT a photographer. I know you're just trying to be nice but your words are like ice, freezing me to the spot, giving me no space to move... to be someone else.

I just have a big camera, OK? It looked smaller online. I'm not trying to be pretentious, to draw attention to myself, I just wanted a big zoom to catch the ray of sun, the dimpled cheek, but now I'm the one caught in your gaze a you focus only on the parts of me that you deem attractive, leaving the rest to blurry ambiguity.

Please let's drop these limiting labels. Don't tie me down to just walking on one single rope. If you just took the time to look beyond the frame you've captured me in, you'd see there was a lot more to this picture. But here I go again trying to justify myself - that i am more than what you say. This i already know, there is nothing to prove. Just please think about the way you introduce me...

(above is from my journal and a bit of an frustrated moment the other week)

i thought about this again today in Spanish when we talked about the author Juan Luis Borges, and how people always tried to define him and his style, and he'd always go and surprise them by doing something completely different. [a bit like Jesus did! His answers and responses were never predictable...] It's safe to stick with something that has brought us success in the past, or that we already know we can do well in, but it can also trap us. In the same way i think we feel safer and more in control when we can label people and things - put them into boxes. But that just mean we are missing out on a whole lot...