Just not my type

 TYPECASTIG SO TO SPEAK

So you get the courage or have the good fortune to be in a new town and you are hungry .  You ask your phone to find “food  near you.”  Then  you see a sign on a fairly modern looking brick and glass building on a entry road to your right.  The name  on the sign is Tom’s Restaurant.  What question comes to mind besides who the heck is Tom?  A real good guess is  “what TYPE of food do they serve?”  It doesn’t probably  matter if you like all kinds of foods or if you  don’t have a burning preference  right then you are still going to wonder… however  let’s stop a second.  What makes dining out  a memorable experience or an enjoyable  experience?  How about the kindness and attention. Demonstrated by the  staff?   Oh and what about the overall cleanliness?  How about the decor  like the pictures of the pickle princess from 1972?  How about the variety of seating options?  All of these. Things impact the experience and yet we as in I go immediately to the type of food in my mind….

It seems these days we have started to  really see people as restaurants, movies, and music asking what type of people you are and then  only alllowing a limited menu (get the restaurant connection?)  to choose from.  We do it with  race, ethnicity, gender, sex, faith, physical and cognitive traits and abilities.  We do it with the location where people live and have lived, how  they say the word dog and the list goes on.  Like Tom’s  it seems in seeking peace and joy we could be selling ourselves short by only connecting  with folks based on the type of food  we assume is on the menu based upon  a label.  You see, forced to “type” myself I might claim to be a moderate extremist fiercely interdependentZen Catholicliberal social  conservative philosopher.

Now there are folks who would promote the notion that they want to hang with people  like themselves…. Well fair enough as long as those folks get to make the decision about who they are like and don’t  get paralyzed by the trap of constant comparisons  that are dead set on exclusion.  

The typing  pendulum has swung pretty far because  we have been selling fear like toilet paper in the pandemic  lately and we see safety in numbers.   IYet, I can’t help but wondder. If there aren’t some other ways  to find our “tribes” that don’t require  typing that seems static and permanent?  The next few blogs  will suggest  some ideas for widening the road. We travel down a bit…. You know  let us consider some other ways in which we can seek peace and joy and understand each other.   

I will offer  one caveat when it comes to “typing” and when it has been helpful….

Around about 1901 Karl Landsteiner figured out that people  have Type  A, B, and C (that became  O)  and some other folks added RH  a little later…yes in typing blood we have been able to save  a lot of folks by making it possible for one  person to help a lot of others… Oh when we use type” to help each other  maybe it’s  a pretty  useful concept?  

And speaking of blood, I’m lucky enough to get some health assistance by having routine. Blood draws and one is coming this morning …. I get to fill up 7 of those little viles and  I’m going for my personal best of  being able to  do it in less than three minutes….  New Olympic sport?  

More  tomorrow think tick tock….