Just because we *have* baggage

doesn't mean we *are* baggage! (made this comment over on Michael's blog, liked it so much I thought I'd put it here, too, for safe-keeping.)

The point being that 'labeling' is quite often, and quite simply, a POWER TRIP for the person wielding the label, especially if that person is not you.

*YOU* get to choose who and what you are. Nobody else!

And I realize that may seem to fly in the face of what I've said about us being 'shaped by our circumstances' and our sense of self largely coming from how others see us.

Well, it's a 'both, and' rather than an 'either, or'.