Hello, please proceed to the box labeled…
Down in the back corner of the basement, we have a storage room with a workbench on one wall and built in shelving along the opposite. Upon moving into the house, we went over to the local home furnishings warehouse and purchased several boxes that were sized appropriately to fit within the openings between those shelves. These boxes allowed my wife and me to organize all of our décor for various holidays, and all of the other stuff that we don’t need but can’t bear the thought of getting rid of. Do you have one of these rooms?
The boxes got laid out while we unpacked from the move, and we started organizing and labeling the various boxes. Christmas décor went in this box, Halloween décor in this one, my baseball cards in this one, and my wife’s childhood toys in that one. Everything had a box to be in and continues to afford us the utmost ease in locating things because we know by the box and label where to look. It’s organized. It’s neat. It’s easy.
I recently read an article discussing what a professional person looks like – how he or she dresses, their haircut, shoes, walk, the car they drive, etc. The same can be true for a skateboarder – how he or she dresses, haircut, shoes, walk, etc. How about a musician? Artist? Athlete? Preacher? We have all written articles in our minds about what these people look like. These articles may have been written by our parents and handed down to us, or they may have been articles written by someone else that we read and stored away as acceptable. Regardless, when you read Artist or Preacher above, an image popped into your head representing your article for that particular person. These images are based on stereotype, television, and a plethora of other things, but suffice it to say that we like the labels we put on people because it’s organized, it’s neat, and it’s easy. We place people in a box.
The interesting thing is, we not only do this to others, but we do it to ourselves as well. When we’re kids growing up, the sky’s the limit. I remember dreaming about playing for the Cubs. I wanted to follow in Ryne Sandburg’s footsteps. I also dreamed about being a wide receiver for the Bears. I would catch the ball like Steve Largent and run through people like Walter Payton; I had Hall of Fame written all over me! For you, maybe it was an astronaut, or maybe you wanted to be the next Harrison Ford or Audrey Hepburn. Maybe you were going to be a rock god like the guys in Zeppelin and tour the world, or be a scientist and create something the world has never seen before. When you’re a kid, you can do anything or be anybody. Then…something happens.
I’m not tall enough to play in the NBA. I’m not skinny enough to be a runway model. I’m not pretty enough to be an actor. My grades aren’t good enough to get into Princeton.
The box starts to be constructed.
Can I go to church as a smoker? I’m homosexual; the guys at work will never accept me. I got arrested as a teenager; I’m not good enough.
The sides of the box are up.
Well, I’m not where I want to be, but this isn’t that bad. I can’t do that; what will people say? They’ll think I’m crazy if I leave this job to do what I really feel I should be doing; besides, what if I fail?
The box has a lid.
We create limits for ourselves based on our unique situations. We’ve become accustomed to comfort. We’ve become accustomed to easy. Our generation never had to build anything; our grandparents and parents took care of that. Why not coast through life? Let’s ride the wave created by the sweat of previous generations. Why not settle for good enough? The box is organized. It’s neat. It’s easy, and it’s safe.
I, for one, am tired of living a safe life inside the box. I’m not saying I have the definitive answer or that it makes sense to blow up the box all at once and approach the border of reckless, but I am saying it’s time to punch a couple holes in the side and spill outside of our safe zone a little bit. I guess it’s more of a challenge to examine the limits you and I have placed on ourselves. What box do you find yourself in? Are you satisfied with your box? Are you capable of more personally, professionally, socially, and spiritually? Are you subscribing to the boxes prescribed in articles written by someone else about whom you should be? Let me say that one again: Are you subscribing to the boxes prescribed in articles written by someone else about whom you should be? Does it even resemble the sky’s the limit dreams you had as a child?
What about the boxes you’ve labeled for others? What if the best Preacher in your city actually looks like a skateboarder? What if your child’s favorite teacher has a tattoo and piercings? What if a potential business partner doesn’t dress in a suit like you do, but everything about his or her resume is perfect? By approaching people with box in hand, we’re robbing them of everything that makes them a unique individual. Where did this fear of accepting people as individuals versus a person from one of our prescribed boxes come from? Do you have the courage to punch a hole in any of your boxes?
It’s really an overused term, “Think outside the box.” It’s something that rolls off our lips because it sounds cool, but do we really believe it? Is there some value to that term? Maybe we should start living it rather than just saying it, and apply it to more than just design and business thinking. Let’s look beyond the façade that everyone shows the world and really get to know somebody. Let’s be slower to judge and quicker to engage. We don’t have to agree with everything a person does in order to be a decent human being. We don’t have to have everything in common with someone to associate with them. I believe God created individuals uniquely gifted to bring something to this world. He never created boxes. We made those all by ourselves.
