Good Matthew, Bad Matthew

I was thinking today about how we classify ourselves. We have this need to see ourselves in some certain way. We're a good person, a bad person, a cynic, a hypocrite, a liar, a saint, a devil, a whore, a comedian, an idiot, and so on. I was lying in bed one night thinking over a particularly horrible thing I had done once and I thought, "I am a horrible person." But, I don't normally think this. Actually, I really don't see the need to designate myself a certain type of person.

I'm definitely no saint. I have made my fair share of mistakes and have many things I would change in my past if I had the chance. This doesn't make me a bad person, does it? We have all done something we wish we hadn't. We all have regrets and pains in our past we'd like to forget, right? So, do these things define us? Or do we define them?

We have this need to label people. For example: Hitler is evil, Mother Teresa is a saint, Jessica Simpson is a dumb blonde, and Albert Einstein is a genius. We do this, I think, for some order in the world. I speak specifically of the "evil" label. Hitler is evil. Okay, he did some horrible things, but we can't just say "evil" to sum a person up. There is so much more to human beings than just one word to complete the story. History says he had trouble with his father and wanted to prove his worth to his father. Could this have led him to his later acts? I'm not justifying his actions, I'm only saying there is a reason for people being the way they are. We do not come into this world with preset notions of how things are and how things should be. We develop them with help from the environment around us.

Okay, so I've rambled off into another subject here. I guess the whole point of this was I don't believe we should label ourselves or others. I've done bad things, I've done good things; why should one outweigh the other?

Hmm, okay, so forgive me for this post, just what was on my mind at the moment. Oh, well. On with the day!