I find it puzzling that a good number of people spend more time, effort, words and energy making sure things are properly labeled....
There is almost an absurd frenzy that all life forms who merit it get the official stamp of "Person".
I am sincerely confused by it all, and maybe just a bit irritated.
I have known and know many "persons", who are more like walking ghosts, waiting and hoping, for....for...
Something...they don't have a name for; Like pinocchio they are waiting for that something that makes them a real live "person".
They have learned that labels are cheap and generic, and only make them feel more hollow and pale. They fade away a little more with each new label.
In fact, labels seem to make non-persons out of people.
Elderly, cancer patient, disabled, mentally ill, helpless, victims, Islamic, Hindu, catholic, protestant.
In the tradition of Bonhoeffer's "cheap grace", bestowing a label on someone is "cheap love".
Seeing and naming their need is easy; but very few people feel it is their job to go beyond "seeing" and "knowing".
They think doing something about is must be for the next shift...the shift that never seems to show up.
Like the wizard of Oz's gifts to Dorothy and her friends, labels bestowed with a much noise and pomp might give onlookers warm fuzzies.
But it's a promise that rarely comes to any fruition. After the victory party, everyone goes home to rest; until the next meaningless battle.
As Dorothy and her fellow travelers learned, it is only by walking side by side, sacrificing time, missing out the fireworks or the next battle (there will always be battles that are "Life and Death"; I beginning to suspect it's a demonic plot to keep people from really doing the one needful thing...which involves a real person with a name, not generic "persons".
And that work is the day to day, often monotonous work of being there with the other-it could family or stranger- in and out of season, not counting cost, but willing to give what is needed, what every person longs for...a heart full of Love, someone beside you to give you courage to face the day, gaining knowledge that may not always be welcome, but that is often the price of real wisdom; and most of all a place to belong...where you are called by Name.