<aside> 🚧 I'm not happy with the wording here, and have some concerns about how it comes across. I think perhaps the message here is needlessly opaque or unclear.
So FYI I'll be revisiting this page again soon; take what's here with a grain of salt.
</aside>
I've compiled my thoughts here so that I'm not repeating the same ideas and intentions over and over again in different posts and parts of the website.
The reason this page exists is because in posts like About Me and Why I started a website, I've found it difficult to be satisfied with the prescription of certain labels. If you read through those posts, you'll likely see what I'm saying and where/why that comes up. That's also why those posts in particular are long-form, because I believe that the expression of longer prose ultimately does a better job of communicating the intended ideas.
And with questions like [WIP] Are you a Buddhist?, the theme is again manifest, so here we are.
I find labels and other such distinctions to be very much of a 'language game'. ****
When I say 'language game' I just feel like it's likely we're: arguing over semantics, being overly binary, or maybe just generally being too reductionist.
It's for this reason that I don't lavishly slap-on labels or try to cultivate some specific identity like "developer" or "meditator" or "writer" or whatever else, because I am lots of different things in lots of different contexts.
There's nothing inherently wrong with them, nor do I outright reject them or triumphantly refuse to be labelled**.** Language is simply a tool for communication and words (ergo, labels) are ultimately just pointers to ideas and concepts.
Yes, fair - I digress. In summary:
Labels are contextually useful, but ultimately they're just pointers to ideas and concepts to facilitate communication; therefore they needn't be clung to.
And therefore:
You don't have to either: 1) be [something] or, 2) not be [something].
That's the problem I have with labels, and why it seems either reductionist or like a 'language game'. If you ask me a question like "Saxon, are you ____?" oftentimes my natural response is "To be honest I don't even really think about that much, either way", as opposed to yes/no; in my opinion this is different to responding "maybe" or "I don't think so".
The other point is that I'm happy to agree with what a label/word represents: "are you a meditator?" - if the question indeed implies something like "do you meditate?" - then, "yes!", but find this to be a stumbling ground if it becomes "I am Saxon Cameron - meditator!". I mean yes, but if we're raising one label up in particular above all the other intricacies and interests that comprise us as a person - you can see the difference.
Maybe it's just identity association that's the tricky thing.