I once had a high school teacher ask if I was pro-choice or pro-life. It was awkward at 16 to make a public political statement. But eventually we all raised our hand for one of those two categories.
Coach Gleichman laughed at us. He pretty much called us all idiots (He did that a lot.)and made us put our hands down.
He then went on to explain to us that all of us are pro-choice, in that we all wanted to make our own decisions, and that we were all pro-life, in that, generally we all wanted to live and we didn’t really want others to die. He told us not to be held captive by the labels that people placed on us. He told us not to be a prisoner to the labels we placed ourselves.
I thought about that while trying to decide what color to paint my home. Sure, it’s a pretty trivial decision in the grand scheme of things. But the painter brought me several hundred color cards from which to choose.
Some colors were eliminated quickly for arbitrary reasons. (The colors of neighboring houses, for instance. My children’s picks, Raspberry sprinkle and Twinkle Little Star were cut pretty quickly too.)
But in a world with an unlimited number of options, why do we limit ourselves so much? Coach Gleichman made me realize that I’m not limited to the pre-arranged boxes society wants me to check… I don’t have to choose the standard neutrals that are popular in my neighborhood. So, if you come to my house next week and it’s Mystic Melon green, blame the coach who pushed his Pro-life/pro-choice agenda on unsuspecting public school children.
Thanks, coach!
Mama Radford
TheWRITEaddiction.com 
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