My Name is Skim Shady

It's interesting how people are defined by how they feel about particular subjects. What is the difference between someone who doesn't eat meat and a vegetarian? How significant must an issue be in order for it to go from being something they do to something that they are?

I eat a lot more cheese than is probably healthy yet people call me lefty because I eat it with my left hand. There's no word for people who eat too much dairy so it's just something I do, not who I am.

Most people probably don't like to be known as these things because it limits their existence to the fact that they do that one thing. The labels that exist for people who don't do specific things is even stranger. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat meat. What do you call someone who doesn't eat potato salad? Or what about someone who doesn't go bowling? If I am pro-life, it doesn't mean that all I do is sit around all day not aborting babies. It just means that I don't know enough about it to feel comfortable with the idea.

Labels like atheist, lefty, vegan, brown-coat, liberal, and goat skinner, are all things that describe a small part of what people do and it's important to avoid placing the people around you in these limiting definitions. Some people have things that they do that they are embarrassed about and defining them by these things is demoralizing. I'm not proud of the quantity of cheese I consume and luckily, there aren't any derogatory terms that I'm aware of that people would call me to remind me of the fact. Not everyone is so lucky. If I were to think of names to call people who eat too much dairy, I think Lactiod, Cheese-head, and Skim Shady would be at the top of my list.