When you look at the above picture, what do you see?

In my early youth, last century, I might have told you, “Toilet paper and a crescent wrench on some kind of ratty surface.”  But, along came a Boy Scout Master who took me camping and taught me what the item on the left really was – AP Paper!  No, not Associated Press Paper.  All Purpose Paper!

What a silly distinction you might think.  Until you realize how often I need to clean something or wipe something off spur of the moment.  Sometimes, I sneeze.  Sometimes, I need just the right temporary shim.

Would you believe they put something so handy and recyclable on a roll of cardboard in a package just the right size to always be handy?  It’s really inexpensive!  And, it’s even embossed with hearts.

My point is that we so often limit the way we look at and use something by the way we name it.  It is the old “label libel” problem.  We do it with tools.  We do it with relationships.  We do it with God.  We do it with political descriptions.  As soon as we label something, we limit it in our mind.

Now, I’m not so silly as to say this is a totally bad thing at all, because without some limiting, how would we focus?  Some have posed the idea that the brain doesn’t generate anything, it filters down from everything-available-at-once.  I wouldn’t be surprised it is a little of both.  If we never labeled anything, it would be very difficult to ever discuss it or communicate to another about it.  I’m just saying that it comes at some price and it is good to stop and count the cost periodically.

Do I really call it AP paper these days?  No.  Just when I want to make a point on a blog.  But, if that Scout Master had never called it that and never taught me to think of it differently…I bet it wouldn’t be on my workbench!

What can you think of that you see limited by its label?