BE (In The Uncomfortable Place) TWEEN

“If you've never failed you've never tried,” proclaims the adage. So...

It's right to be wrong
which implies
being wrong is right
which means
it's right to be right

Huh?
This conundrum leaves me not only nonplussed but...
in the uncomfortable place
(between).

What has all this right and wrong got to do with anything?
Everything!

It's about a world fixated with certainty but striving for change.
It's about a world espousing tolerance but celebrating conviction.
It's about a world selling final solutions but providing beta tools.
It's about a world encouraging trying but only celebrating winners.

It's a world of poles.
Left - Right.
East - West.
It's a world of labels.

Labels are great.
They allow us to make sense of things.
Modernist - Post Modernist
Positivist - Interpretivist
Conservative - Liberal...Aah, what weighty labels this pair is, whether used in politics, religion, education, anywhere.

Labels are great.
Once you attach them to a person you no longer need to think.
He's a Vegan.
She's a Goth.
He's a Muslim.
She's a Greeny.

Labels come with [predefined packages].
How they dress.
How they think.
How they speak.
How they act.

It's simple.
Double click.
Unpack label.
Run preinstalled thinking routine.

Labels are great.
Once we attach them to ourselves we no longer need to think.
I'm pro-abortion.
I'm anti-religion.
I'm pro-vaccines.
I'm anti-schooling.

It's simple.
Double click.
Unpack label.
Run preinstalled thinking routine. 

“The dominant Western worldview is not based on seeing synergies and connections but on making distinctions and seeing differences. This is why we pin butterflies in separate boxes from beetles - and teach separate subjects in schools.” (Ken Robinson)

Yet what makes us think our world fits so neatly into our predefined labels? Each of these labels unpacks into a myriad of other issues.

Each of these labels has stolid supporters who genuinely espouse the views. Not just crazy radicals, although they may exist, but reasonable people just like me...just like you.

Each of these labels has stolid adversaries who genuinely reject the views. Not just crazy radicals, although they may exist, but reasonable people just like me...just like you.

Where does this leave us if we toss out labels, if we toss out our neat categories?
It leaves us in the uncomfortable place (between).

A place where every person we meet, must be engaged and assessed.
A place where every issue raised, must be reasoned and examined.
A place where every idea proposed, must be explored and imagined.

Now that's truly an uncomfortable place to be.

A place where we can't blithely tar and feather people, issues, and ideas, with the broad stroke of a label.

(Between
- A place where we treat people as individuals,
- issues as opportunities,
- and ideas as possibilities )

Labels are wrong.
But if it's right to be wrong then labels are right, because they're wrong...which once more leaves me in that uncomfortable place
(between),
where if labels are wrong,
then paradoxically I should be labeled as
“anti-labels”,
which would be a comfortable place to be.

I could reject all labels as trivializing and shallow.
I could RAGE against those who mindlessly categorize.
I could disparage those who shallowly reduce complexity to simplicity.

What makes us think our world does not fit beautifully into amazing patterns given life by labels?

What makes us think that our world of complexities cannot be reduced to the beauty of a number, of a pattern, of a label?

Rather let's be in the uncomfortable place - between - labels - and no labels.
Rather let's be in the uncomfortable place - between - certainty of what's right - and confusion about what's wrong.
A place not of solid ground...
but
shifts,
movement.

“The world is not made of stable, rock-solid forms, but only of front lines in a battle or love story between actants.” (Harman)

Like Dadaism...an anti-art.
Art that was not art. 

Duchamp Fountain - Dadaism "Art"

A non-movement that protested against society through non-art, only to become...
A movement that became representative of society's protest through art.

No sooner had Dadaism eschewed labels and classification, than it became a label, and a classification.

Between is not a place of rest, 
it is not a place of stasis.
It is a place of imbalance, 
a place of movement. 
In this movement, 
in this imbalance, 
there is learning, 
there is growth.

Let's celebrate vulnerability because it's the heart of learning.
Let's embrace corecting because it's more valuable than correct. 
Let's treasure uncertaint... because it's the genesis of innovation.

Whether you're theorizing in academia, debating in society, arguing in religion, discussing in politics, or teaching in schools, let's question our quixotic certainties and step into the uncomfortable space called “between” - because therein lies our greatest opportunities to learn, to grow, to become. 

Now I know I am right. 
Now I know I am wrong. 
Now I know I...
BE (In The Uncomfortable Place) TWEEN