What markers do you define yourself by?

[Ultralight]

I don’t understand the contemporary obsession with applying labels to oneself and others.

Labels can be pretty handy.

[Ultralight]

What are my identity politics? Is that really what you are asking, Rob?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Labels of the demographic sort may be fine for social analysis but make less sense applied to oneself. For one thing they are often fluid. One could move zip code! Even income has some degree of fluidity, I don't need to argue it's particularly strong, and it's often downward but .... nonetheless. Other things, ok one doesn't usually change race , so those are on the non-fluid side. Things like personality traits change some, especially situationally, but also often have some stability over the lifetime as well. Values can certainly change.

[Ultralight]

I'll give an idea of what I am getting at here......it's obvious to anyone who has read my posts that my zip code and my social class experiences in America define me to a large extent - what defines you? Just curious......hoping this leads to an interesting thread. Rob

I tend to identify myself by what I do rather than where I live or immutable characteristics such as skin color or sex.

For instance I am a:
-minimalist
-amateur artist (arguably, haha)
-rescue dog enthusiast
-loan drone
-avid reader

Those are some examples.

[catherine]

I also am in the camp of trying to dissolve labels, or markers. Interesting topic because on the plane today I was reading (for the 2nd time) a great book by Richard Rohr, S.J. called Falling Upward, and in it he talks about the second half of life. He says "In the second half of life you gradually step out of this hall of revolving and self-reflecting mirrors."

I started a blog in 2009, and I stopped writing in it after a couple of years. But I struggled with the "About Me" thing you're always supposed to put in blogs. I didn't want to say "I am an XXXX a XXXX". So I took UL's approach by talking about what I do/have done. But that doesn't really define me either. Whatever I say is going to be like that old TV game show, Concentration, where you would match up a pair of tiles that would reveal parts of a picture underneath but unless you turn over all the tiles, it's hard to get the picture.

[Ultralight]

I really wonder why people recoil from labels when it comes to their persons but they love labels when it comes to their food and beverage.

[catherine]

I really wonder why people recoil from labels when it comes to their persons but they love labels when it comes to their food and beverage.

Because people aren't food or beverages.

And not all people recoil from labels. Many people do find meaning in "branding" themselves. Maybe you have the wrong audience in a bunch of simple livers who don't feel human beings can be reduced to a set of attributes.

[Ultralight]

Because people aren't food or beverages.

And not all people recoil from labels. Many people do find meaning in "branding" themselves. Maybe you have the wrong audience in a bunch of simple livers who don't feel human beings can be reduced to a set of attributes.

Why is it reducing to a set of attributes? Why isn't it summing up to a set of attributes?

Why learn to play the banjo only to deny that you're a banjo player?
Why learn to catch sockeye salmon and then deny that you're an angler?


This reminds me of those silly-ass couples in college who would say things like: "We're not really into labels?"

But they did everything that other romantic couples did. haha

[Ultralight]

...a bunch of simple livers ...

Gotcha.

[catherine]

Why is it reducing to a set of attributes? Why isn't it summing up to a set of attributes?

Why learn to play the banjo only to deny that you're a banjo player?
Why learn to catch sockeye salmon and then deny that you're an angler?


This reminds me of those silly-ass couples in college who would say things like: "We're not really into labels?"

But they did everything that other romantic couples did. haha

OK. I hear ya. But I'm still not ready to answer the question. So, for starters, here's my About Me. https://silententry.wordpress.com/about-me/