Jelly Pickle!

  Too often I hear someone try to do the same, try to insist upon a catogory for on item, as if branding it would make the world all the more logical.  In an age of technology and information, where wonders and things unknown are ceasing to exist, we still seek to group everything we see, do, and experience, seek to group them into something we recognize, something we can understand.

  Yet the act is contradictory in itself.  How can we try to group something unknown into something we understand? If we discovered something completely unknown, a new species on another planet, would we try to relate it back to something on Earth?

  Just look at the gadgets today.  They’re nearly impossible to classify.  Is it an MP3 player? A video player? It can even go online! One of my friends declared it must be an iPhone… or it could just be a laptop.  Following this logic, the same fellow concluded that perhaps one day they could start making MP3 players that functioned like miniature computers.  On the other hand, they could simply just begin making miniature computers.  The fellow, however, argued that having an MP3 player with more features is better.  Would they not be the same?

  Categorization is not that big of a deal applied to everyday accessories.  It’s a harmless aspect until we look at how it’s applied to people.  Stereotypes? Maybe.  But it goes deeper than that.  Beyond just appearances, ethnicity, culture, there is somehow this fundamental belief that people who are good at one thing must be bad at another, that people can only specialize in one or two areas, that it is okay not to be good at everything, and therefore okay not to try.  People are either book smart or street smart, talented or hard working, fashionable or successful,  mentally stable or physically strong - why can’t you be both? Why not be all of it?

  And such people do exist.  But for the general population, denying this fact keeps us satisfied.  We already have a label, already belong to one area, so there’s no chance of ever exploring the others.  If not subconsciously denying it ourselves, we deny this fact to others, seeing one’s strength and immediately assuming the opposite trait must be his weakness. 

  We tell ourselves perfection is not possible, but how can you be sure unless you’ve tried? And even if you fail, would you not be so much a better person than if you did not attempt in the first place?