The Label Lament

My mom once had a label maker. She went crazy with that thing. Little labels EVERYWHERE. Every container received a label. The container did nothing to deserve it, but simply because it was a container, it received a label. Everything had a title, whether the title fit the contents of the container or not didn't really matter. It could not stop her labeling frenzy. The best day was when that thing broke!

_______________

Don't Label Me

Don't label me.

For you will find

if you take the time,

that I don't fit

within your rhyme.

Don't bait your trap.

You cannot see

what there is inside of me.

Who I am

Who I'll be.

You think you know

every single time

what there is inside my mind.

behind these eyes

all things unwind.

But no one knows

There is no way

But there you are every day,

can't even hear

what I say;

Yet you try so hard

to tie me down

to place me in your circle round.

no box can hold;

no title sound.

What do I do?

What can I say,

So you won't label me today?

I've been set free

to fly away.

To find new places,

to see things anew.

To experience Go; just us two.

I come back

tell where I flew.

Let others see,

let others know

All the things God can show.

If we're set free

new seed we'll sew.

But don't label us

no names you'll find,

even those you shout behind.

There's no title

down our spine.

We are new,

not seen before,

you cannot find us in the store

of all you know;

of all you're sure.

Don't Label Me!

-by justin bowman

_-_-_-_-_

I never claimed to be a good poet, but I felt inspired:)

I'm getting sick of people trying to place me in their perceived bubble and stick their little label on me. Just because you place a label on me, doesn't make what that label says true (accurate). You can throw a giraffe in a lake and call him a swan, but you calling him that won't make him a swan. (I'm not a giraffe either btw:)

the reality of my life is that spirituality is messy, not nice and neat! It's jumping on a trampoline not holding up a brick wall. It's painting on a new canvas with broad strokes, not paint-by-numbers. I'm a TERRIBLE and messy painter (just so you know)!! It's molding and remolding clay trying to find a better model of myself that looks like the person Christ/God wants to mold me into. It's trying to write a symphony, when you only know how to play the guitar. It's breaking out of the general population of prison, only to have the warden put place you back in solitary confinement. It's cold feet before the wedding. It's opening a book that you want to read only to find that the jacket is not really what the book is. It's spring cleaning at my house. It's operating on Window's Vista Ultimate and not being able to run any software. It looks less like Monet and more like Pollock (both are beautiful and both are art BTW).

These may seem like meaningless ramblings and abstract analogies, but those that TRULY know me well will get all of them (my wife for instance). Others that haven't known me as long will not get ALL of them, but will know what I'm talking about with some. But the random reader and those that think they know me, but are too busy labeling me to truly listen, will prob. not have a clue what those mean! You can Interpret what I may mean by those, but your interpretation and the actual meaning may be off. But unless one tries to get to know me, or simply asks, they will go along with their interpretation of my life and misrepresent the original intent.

AND THAT'S THE POINT! I know me, God knows me even better! So just stop already. I don't claim to know you, I don't try to put labels on people. I hate labels!

In the words of the great philosopher/theologian Tom Petty:

"You don't know what it's like,

no you don't know what it's like

to be me."

No one knows what it's like to be me!