Grant Specificity to the Other

Patti Digh talks about how easy it is to see people as “whats” and not “whos.” We are categorizing and story-making animals, using language to create expediency and neatness, assigning titles like yuppie, Mom, CEO, black, white, punk, janitor, freshman. It serves a purpose, but it denies the complexity of human interaction. It also keeps us from mixing it up, keeping us in gated communities.The only way out of those gates is to grant specificity to the other.