I was with a passenger during my ride, and they were talking in a language which was completely new to me. My shy being did not even ask what language is this. The thing is: what if they were insulting me? Even a thought of such nature is sort of overthinking. But what if they were? Does it change anything? I do not think so. Because I do not even know the language.
No meaning; no insult.
One thing is confirmed, it is me who labels meaning to the things. As soon as those words lose their meaning; their nature also turns alien. At the same time, once that meaning becomes familiar, we stop seeing the thing itself. We see our label.
Maybe colors are the oldest example of this labeling thing.
Take black magic. Why black? Why not orange magic? I mean orange sounds more suspicious to me. Historically, black or darkness is seen as a symbol of evil or wickedness, and since then, it became attached to forbidden or harmful things. Same is the case with blackmail. And this is not racism at all! The purpose here is the attached meaning - we borrow something physical and turn it into a moral idea.
However, it does not stop here.
As colors are only the simplest version of labelling thing. Because, in reality, we do it with almost everything around us. Every person comes with a tag i.e. label. As an example, we call one job respectable and another ordinary. The concept of collar jobs. Even things have their own labelling consider iPhone or Samsung. I mean, if you ask me, phone is a phone. Or think of a branded shirt. The label there is because of a little tag.
Unfortunately, we label experiences too.
I failed to get a job; I am a failure for the time being. I lost money, and now, I am unlucky. Contrary is the same. I am lucky, if I found it. Although, with this luck of mine, I fall in the first category, lol! Anyways, back to the seriousness. It maybe an event of a mere few seconds, but it may lost for some big time. And perhaps the strange part is that we often suffer more from the meaning we attach to an experience than from the experience itself. A job rejection is simply a rejection, until I turn it into a statement about who I am.
The word introvert.
I have just realised that even the word "introvert" is something I labelled myself with in the beginning. I started a followed pattern in my personality and eventually named them. And then comes the usual part: is this something I was born with, or did I slowly learnt the ways of society. Because, I cannot deny that it is just a societal way; there is some innateness as well. At first, the label may begin as an explanation, but after some time, it can become an identity.
In the end, I am not saying that this whole label thing is flawed. It is a must for thorough existence, because a name is label too. And, we cannot have proper identity without it. We just need to differentiate between label as a thing over everything. Because if we don't, there is high chance of us spending our whole lives living inside labels that we created ourselves. So were those passengers insulting me? The body language said so, but is it worth remembering? Of course not! And that is the point: no meaning; no insult.
Remember to see the world as you want to, not the way it wants you to.
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Peace 🕊️
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Picture taken by me, has been used before as well.
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