Labels Hurt, Childhood reborn I had the benefit of a 4 1/2 hour car ride to do some thinking. The "angel-baby" was asleep in his car seat. The magnificent fall foliage was no match for the cover of darkness, and the little white lines were not providing much mental stimulation.

(Much of the time my wife and I had a great conversatoin, but eventually heavy eyelids caught up with her too... so I'm not saying she wasn't stimulating.. she was. But she fell asleep)

So I started thinking about a spot I had recently heard on NPR saying something to the effect of "Labels hurt and stigmatize, blah blah blah" and I started thinking about my own childhood. My parents didn't call us freaks or losers or anything like that, but they were very eager to classify us as "the artistic one," (not me!) or the "free-spirited one" or the "hard working child" or the "outgoing child." With those kind of labels, meant as positive and affirming, they inadvertenly picked a pair of "not the artistic ones" and "chained-spirted ones."

Years later, I'm sitting in the driver seat listening to my son breathe quietly. I realize that those labels closed doors for me. I was not the "artistic one" so I came to see myself as an aesthetically challenged engineering type. So where did that leave me when the engineering was too rigid and confined me to closely to rules, angles (and half angle formulas) and methods?

Now I resolve, to take this opportunity to have my creative side reborn with my son. I'll start with legos, then move on to crayons, finger paints, and of course bathtub art. When I feel clean, I'll get to work with dull scissors with rounded edges, glue sticks, glitter and construction paper.

I will find my medium. I will, I will.!  ¶ 8:46 AM