Tonight, I am thinking about labels.  I think labels are good for one thing.  Canning Jars.  Well…. canning jars…. AND…  the Ingredients List on a package of Twinkies.  Okay.  One more.  That little skull and crossbones  deal…. that they put on bottle of poison and such.   But other than those three things … labels suck.

There.  I’ve said.  Labels suck.

Take the poor and under-appreciated Japanese Beetles.  Do you know how many times I’ve heard someone say…. “Oh.  That’s NOT a ladybug.  That’s just a dumb old Japanese Beetle.”
Okay.  First off…. how many of YOU can speak Japanese?  Secondly, for a beetle to be bi-lingual is a pretty-dang-big smarty-pants deal.  And …. they are nearly as cute as Lady Bugs.  Really.  Copper backs….  and all.

Oh those little smarty-pants beetles.   They even named a car for them.  Well.  In Germany they did.

I will revisit one of my favorite quotes…..
“It does make a difference what you call things.”
–Kate Douglas Wiggin

Okay.  Bugs aside.

I think sometimes… in life…. we  let someone else define for us …. what is beautiful and good and worthy. We  have a tendency of letting others tell us what is right and wrong…. especially when it is a whole big bunch of people saying so.  But.  We know.

Much of the beauty and much of the goodness of the world is what we know in our hearts.   Most of us can tell… with our trusty True North Compass…. what is right….  and what is wrong.  And….how lucky we are that, we have this ability…. and ultimately this choice.

So.  Labels stink… like a three-day old dead fish.  Unrefrigerated.

And beetles… are the beetles they were meant to be.    Beep. Weise Käfer. Beep.

“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.” – Chauncy Depew