What Labels do You Use to Describe Yourself?

Do you notice how we like to label ourselves and our world. For instance do you call yourself an Artist, Digital Artist, Photographer, Coach or any of the multitude of names that you might choose from?

We do like to label ourselves, our children, our friends, our pets. And on some level we are aware that those labels really do not identify the real person. Labels are good to organize and place things in a certain perspective.

But what happens when we become bound by those labels? Or better yet, what if we never knew those labels at all?

I'd like to tell a story about a child that some would give the label of ADD or even Dyslexic perhaps.

At a very early age he could not be contained. He had an energy that most would say was out of control. And yet he also had a charming smile and loved to make you laugh.

He was the class clown. And labeled by his teachers as a very unruly and disruptive student.

He was enrolled in many schools and found it difficult to sit in his seat for any length of time. He was a very nervous child.

He was full of a scattered energy, an energy always trying to get out. A child of our day would be prescribed medicine to "calm him down". Once this labeled child is forced to conform to proper society all is quiet again.

But what would happen if those labels were not given to this child? What if instead he was taken out of public school at the age of 12? What would happen if this child had a loving, devoted parent who went out of their way to educate him from home?

What would happen if he was allowed to learn at his own pace? A pace that would in some ways prove to out perform the education system?

What if this devoted parent took out a loan to buy him a piano. And what if he took to that piano with heart and soul. That piano might just act as a harness for the hyperactive energy asking only to be expressed.

What if that child were bought a season pass to the Wold’s Fair where he could visit every day?

What worlds would open up to a child aloud to live without labels? He would still have all the energy but given free rain to explore his world as much as his imagination could handle.

What if these loving and devoted parents took him to Yosemite National Park where the wilderness grabbed his soul and took it to heights many of us would never feel? What if he is given a camera and freedom to roam.

He would take that camera and run with all his energy capturing every spectacular scene that little magic box would hold.

The questions in this post can all be answered by the label we call Ansel Adams, the man who changed photography forever. Ansel Adams was this child lucky enough to be born before these labels. And the world is blessed to have known him. Buy artwork by Ansel Adams at Art.com