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The Sticker on the Fruit
One Way We Can Move Forward Post-Pandemic
That little sticker on the apple you bought makes it faster for the cashier to scan it, it makes it faster for you to get through the line, and it lets you know if your apple was conventionally grown, organically grow, or genetically modified.
I think I may have eaten one of those stickers the other day…
They’re really annoying, eh? You’ve got to use your nails to try to peel them off, which isn’t the most sanitary of practices, even more so during a pandemic. And even if you do manage to get the sticker off, you’re sometimes left with that glue-like residue.
The stickers on the fruit might make it faster to get through the checkout line, but they’re awfully annoying, and sticking labels on people and problems might make it faster to communicate and make decisions, but they hold us all back.
Labelling is about the mindset with which we approach the world. When we look around, do we see people as though they have little stickers on them? Do we see that person and think, “Ah! 4015. She’s the bad apple, the most bitter.” Or do we see people as fellow human beings whom we don’t yet know? Do we see problems we don’t yet understand? Or do we see problems with little stickers on them, already having decided who’s to blame and why things…
