Thou Art Thyself



Flower with Dew Drops



As Shakespeare wrote so many years ago:

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

These words were spoken by Juliet to profess her love for Romeo despite his family.  These are also words that echo one of the core beliefs in Taoist thinking, right seeing.

Juliet loved Romeo, and she was able to separate her feelings for him from years of bad feelings between their two families.  She knew that Romeo was an individual, not a name.  He was flesh and blood, not a label.  He was a soul unto himself, not the sum of his family.

That points to the core of the tragedy.  Too many people concerned with labels and not concerned with facts.  Too many people who accepted the prejudices and rejected the evidence of their own eyes, and their own heart.

In the modern stage adaptation of his work, West Side Story, this tragedy is brought into better focus with the racial prejudices between the Jets and the Sharks.  Over and over people were willing to accept the prejudicial views presented to them as fact, even when the true facts were always obvious.

Sadly governments have resorted to fostering prejudice to control people, especially in war time.  Well crafted campaigns in WWI and WWII sought to create an image of Japanese and German people as somehow less than human.  Tragically they succeeded all to well.

This same problem plagues us still.  One could argue the American government no longer practices that particular form of propaganda.  But other governments do.  And political parties in this country have made it into an art form.

Too many people are still willing to accept the same old prejudices despite the facts staring them in the face.  Even the internet, this amazing fact finding tool, is just as likely to be used to spread all the same old prejudices, the same old labels, the same old lies.

We all carry prejudices with us.  Not only is it something that can't be helped, it also is a valuable survival tool.  Being prejudiced against milk that looks like cottage cheese, for example.  Or people in dark allies holding large knives. Or peas. Yuch.

But we don't need to allow prejudices to take over our good sense.  The evil people in the world like to use prejudice combined with our own natural fears to manipulate people.  The disgust over peas does not need to carry over to green beans.  Yummy.

That person walking down the street is a human being, just like you.  He is a soul wrapped in flesh and blood, just trying to get through the day.  Just like you.  And unless he's holding a really large knife or an assortment of automatic weapons he deserves the same respect that you do. 

You don't have to treat every person you meet like they are the King of Persia. Just don't treat them as someone to be feared and hated because of a label someone else wrote.  Remember, there are plenty of labels attached to you as well, true and untrue.

As Juliet also proclaimed, "Thou art thyself though, not a Montague."

Thou art thyself, nothing more.