Little boxes
Some things are not what they seem or what we believe them to me. All prunes are plums but not all plums are prunes.
I have a tendency to assign labels to people and then put them into little boxes. Quite frequently these people refuse to stay in the little boxes into which I have placed them.
Malvina Reynolds wrote a song which became famous when Pete Seeger recorded it. It is entitled Little Boxes. The first verse begins:
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
While it may be convenient to pick out one aspect or characteristic of a person and assume that we know the person it is very dangerous. Just this morning I was reminded that a judge will decide today what happens to a young man who was force to join a gang in his home county. If deported that gang has now made a commitment to kill him. There was a reason that this young man was forced to join the gang and why he came to this country. Everyone seems to agree that this young man is not a danger but yet “the system” dictated that he be arrested, held in jail and very likely retuned to be killed in his country of birth. He confided in a teacher he trusted and “the system” dictated that the teacher report this young man. Unless the judge show some courage or finds a legal loophole this young man will die. Even if he stays in this country the gang members will attempt to kill him.
Yes, he was a gang member, but he is not a GANG member. Every gang member is not dangerous. Every plum is not a prune!
It is also true that the system is not in charge of our actions. Certainly, there may be consequences if one violates a rule of the system but brave people have been violating unjust laws for a long time. Slaves, those involved in the underground railroad, civil rights workers, and the underground in Nazi German consistently violated the laws of the system. In many countries and until relatively recently in this country homosexual relationships and mixed race marriages were illegal and punishable. All law breakers are not immoral or unethical or criminals.
I only have to look in the mirror to find a person who had often put himself and others into little boxes. I recall being at a discussion about whether or not violence is ever justified. Standing next to me was a “good old boy whose tee shirt barely covered his beer belly” who, I had decided would have nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation. Yet, it was this man who made one of the most cogent, astute observations that day. He popped right out of that box into which I had put him.
Often a voice in my head puts me into a little box and said you cannot do X or Y. It has said, “You are just …” No one is just. True I will never be an opera singer. I cannot even sing on key. But there are many things I can do or learn to do. I may be a plum, but not necessarily a prune. I am always more than and less than any label.
Written April 5, 2018
Some things are not what they seem or what we believe them to me. All prunes are plums but not all plums are prunes.
I have a tendency to assign labels to people and then put them into little boxes. Quite frequently these people refuse to stay in the little boxes into which I have placed them.
Malvina Reynolds wrote a song which became famous when Pete Seeger recorded it. It is entitled Little Boxes. The first verse begins:
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
While it may be convenient to pick out one aspect or characteristic of a person and assume that we know the person it is very dangerous. Just this morning I was reminded that a judge will decide today what happens to a young man who was force to join a gang in his home county. If deported that gang has now made a commitment to kill him. There was a reason that this young man was forced to join the gang and why he came to this country. Everyone seems to agree that this young man is not a danger but yet “the system” dictated that he be arrested, held in jail and very likely retuned to be killed in his country of birth. He confided in a teacher he trusted and “the system” dictated that the teacher report this young man. Unless the judge show some courage or finds a legal loophole this young man will die. Even if he stays in this country the gang members will attempt to kill him.
Yes, he was a gang member, but he is not a GANG member. Every gang member is not dangerous. Every plum is not a prune!
It is also true that the system is not in charge of our actions. Certainly, there may be consequences if one violates a rule of the system but brave people have been violating unjust laws for a long time. Slaves, those involved in the underground railroad, civil rights workers, and the underground in Nazi German consistently violated the laws of the system. In many countries and until relatively recently in this country homosexual relationships and mixed race marriages were illegal and punishable. All law breakers are not immoral or unethical or criminals.
I only have to look in the mirror to find a person who had often put himself and others into little boxes. I recall being at a discussion about whether or not violence is ever justified. Standing next to me was a “good old boy whose tee shirt barely covered his beer belly” who, I had decided would have nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation. Yet, it was this man who made one of the most cogent, astute observations that day. He popped right out of that box into which I had put him.
Often a voice in my head puts me into a little box and said you cannot do X or Y. It has said, “You are just …” No one is just. True I will never be an opera singer. I cannot even sing on key. But there are many things I can do or learn to do. I may be a plum, but not necessarily a prune. I am always more than and less than any label.
Written April 5, 2018
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