Please Tell Me Who I Am

Watch what you say, or they'll be calling you a radical....



You know what I get really sick of? Labels.

I voted for Obama, so I must be a Democrat.

I have a criminal record, so I must be untrustworthy.

I was an orphan, so I must lead a pitiful life.

I'm good at computer networking, so I must be a geek.

I make other people laugh, so I must be a tortured soul.

I'm an Atheist, so I must hate people of faith.

I love martial arts, so I must be a psychopath.

I love good beer, so I must be an alcoholic.

I support gay marriage, so I must be liberal. And gay. And going to hell.

None of the above is remotely accurate to what I really am.

The gay thing is, to me, one of the ultimate contradictions I own. I am repulsed by homosexual behavior. Absolutely disgusted by it. I can't get over or around it, no matter what, I just can't.

But that's where my feelings stop. Because, as long as I don't have to be an active participant in it, I don't care what two people do with each other, or which hole they do it in. Furthermore, I don't feel that God nor his so-called representatives on Earth have any business sticking their self-righteous noses in it either.

I guess a bit of my religious disdain is coming through here - I do think it would be funny as hell if modern Christianity was put on trial & all the followers of the sheep-savior suddenly had to revert to hiding underground and painting fishes on their chests to identify each other.

Bet there'd be a REAL outcry for tolerance and understanding then!

(By the way - the above tirade also goes for the wafer & wine chuggers, the matzo lovers, the rug thumpers & any offshoot branch by another name that thinks itself above humanity).

I love it when people try to qualify their perversions scientifically. Have you ever seen a personality test? Egads! Now there's a regression of rational thought if ever there was one! It's a way of saying that science supports the psychosis of someone who thinks they can qualify your existence with a three page questionnaire.

You can get an insanely off-track result from a written personality test, if you were the sort to indulge in such. I'm not, I don't feel the creators of such tests are remotely capable of defining their OWN lives, how will they define mine?

My wife, for example, is a walking stereotype; She's Asian, good at math, screechy when she's in a bad mood and very...athletic elsewhere.

And ironically, she's as far from "Asian" as you can get. She hates most other Asians, and stays away from cultural gatherings (like Chinese new year). She loves fried chicken. And a white guy.



I don't think anyone can really be confined into a narrow set of standards, even if their behavior indicates otherwise. I have met people that I initially didn't like or get along with - they have become close friends. Others who I loved and trusted proved to be unworthy of that trust. But the point is, even if their primary wiring was towards how they treated me, it still doesn't define them. You could find 10 people in any particular person's past - five of them will praise the person as a saint, the other five will curse them to hell. How do you decide what they are?

Answer: You don't. You let them show you what they are, and that will tell you who they are.



I've made some seriously wrong judgment calls in the past. I'm a horrible judge of character, and it's easy to pull the wool over my eyes. You'd think I might be a bit more mistrusting of people (if the label fits...!) Well, I'm not. I'm easy like Sunday mornin'. But I prefer being this way instead of callous and suspicious...Have you ever seen those guys? The ones that walk around with their guard up all the time? They couldn't relax if you gave them an entire bottle of Scotch. Every innocent attempt at socialization is met with dismay and an unspoken (usually) inference of "What does this guy want?"

You can always pick these people out easily enough. They stand alone at parties and are largely ignored by people who know them.

The point I'm getting at is this: Chocolate is delicious.

Does it matter if you prefer vanilla? Would you hate me if I didn't?

What does it say about me if I dislike BOTH?

And why would you say that?