Out of the Boxes
Boxes are everywhere. With all of the online shopping that goes on, I am pretty sure you might actually have a few boxes in your house right now. We need boxes to get our stuff and sometimes to pack it away and keep it safe. Boxes seem like a great thing when you need them. There can be a problem though. Boxes are great for stuff, but bad for people.
Early in life I heard someone say that “You can’t put God in a box.” I understand that principle, but it amazes me how many times people are trying to not put God in a box for fear of cutting him short. We know better than to put God in a box, but we look for boxes to put people in all the time. In fact, we have been taught through life to figure out those boxes so we can get them in their as quick as possible. Not only are we trying to figure out what box they belong in, but they are looking at us to figure out what box to put us into as well.
Well, what does it really matter if we are in boxes? The problem is that we have been conditioned to believe that people belong in boxes. We look to put them in a box so we don’t really have to get to know them or care about their story. The networks have taught us to just check some boxes and put people in their place. Are you a conservative or a liberal? Are you white or a minority? A believer or an atheist? Democrat or Republican? Pro-life or Pro-choice? All of us have been reduced to how they want to check the box next to our name.
The thing about these boxes is that they are so limiting. If you check one box in the list people begin to believe that you check every box in the imaginary list. We get put in a box by the media or politicians and we can’t find our way out of the box. But, we need to stand up as people and climb out of the box they want to us to stay in. The boxes give them control, leverage and “knowledge” over us because they think they know us.
That is why boxes are so dangerous. They reduce people to categories that may not fit that person. We need to make sure no one boxes us in. Our greatest freedom comes from not being boxed in and taken for granted. We need to keep the boxes for stuff and not for people. Everyone deserves the chance to not be put into a box and to express their life in the way they want. Let Amazon keep the boxes, why don’t we just be who we are and leave the boxes empty and unchecked.