Pieces 12-28-12

Books books book... I love them so much. I am a bookworm, a nature geek, a robotics geek, bit of a nerd in general and love math. Wow sounds like I fit the Asian stereotype well. Who cares really? There are millions of labels out there  In English Jeff taught us to judge a book by it's cover, but when it comes to labels of people there shouldn't be a big sticker announcing who you are because it's always wrong. Well most of the time. I can't say all because there seems to always be an exception to the rule just waiting to prove you wrong. To stick a label on a person is to pass judgement on them without even knowing them. It's like the Conserve School application. List 5 words that would describe your personality. I promptly called up Laurel and we proceeded to fill the entire allotted space with words that describe me. The slots where I was supposed to say whether I was clean or dirty, night-owl or early bird... I customized my own checked boxes. If you really know a person they can't be summed up into a puny handful of words. if they can you need to chat with them for a while longer or you are a person who is REALLY good with words. You have to be friends with a poet laureate for me to believe you, and even then I might not take you seriously. 

Today there was a woman in Barnes and Noble who was helping be find Michael Pollan books. She needed by personal information so that the store could notify me when the book came in. When I told her my name was Bernard she immediately responded by saying, "I love it! It has a class that I haven't heard in a while." I think this was a very interesting comment. Most of the time names (especially last names) don't often tell much about the person. Sure kind woman at Barnes and Noble.. I'd like to think of myself as classy, but I don't think that that's what I really am. I'm more of the back to the earth type who wears tie dye and flannels with buttons that look like gears and wolves. The one who doesn't take showers as much as she probably should. The one who geeks out over LED poi and smartwool socks. That's me. Not in a nutshell not even a glimpse at who I am. That's a zillionth of who I am and terms like these should be a zillionth of who you are. Think about it. What makes you smile and laugh what makes you free and happy? What gives you comfort. Those are the things that will begin to define you. That is part of who you are.