Labels

Call me Ishmael.  If you have ever read Moby Dick, you know that today's Thought starts in just that manner.  Yet in typical Gary Larson fashion, he has taken a classic and turned into something quite humorous.  But in the end, what does 'Ishmael' signify?

Around the table at lunch time today, my co-workers and I got into a discussion about the proper naming of the meals.  We all agreed on Breakfast, but  the room was split on whether it is Lunch or Dinner.  One co-worker even said, "I don't even know what that is!" in response to one of us calling the noontime meal 'dinner'.  While we all had a good chuckle, it got us thinking.  Eventually another co-worker suggested this would be good material for a blog post.  I must say, I agree with her.

What are labels?  At their core, they help us identify unique objects, events, outcomes, or even people.  At times accurate, they can be tremendously misleading.  How many times have you looked at something's label and immediately dismissed it as being worthless?  Perhaps it was a pair of shoes that didn't quite have a good name, or maybe it was food on a menu that didn't quite call your name.  Many times, those labels just tell part of the story.  In the end, a label is just a placeholder, an identifier.

I think we are currently suffering from a huge reliance on labels and an utter disregard for true research and understanding.  Take recent policy proceedings, name the recently failed Farm Bill.  Listening to people who were in the room during the tallying of the vote, they were utterly shocked to see the bill failing.  It seemed to have wide-ranging support and many agreed it was the right thing to pass.  And yet, it failed.  Somewhere along the line, someone didn't do the research.  This doesn't stop just in politics.  It goes on all around us.  I know in my own life, many times while researching for a paper, I will read the title of a study or even the abstract and immediately discard it as having no value for me.  And yet, it's only when I sit down and do some true research do I see the true value.  Do you do the research?  Do you see the value?