I am thankful for they/them pronouns. To be fully truthful with y’all, I initially balked at the idea of the singular they when I first encountered this new concept. It was different and foreign from what I grew up with and was used to or familiar and comfortable with. However, once I accepted that initial learning curve and fear of the unknown and began to consider the why behind it, I actually grew to appreciate, adore, and even adopt them.
Why? I strive for peace.
Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.
-Wayne Dyer
Gender equality issues run rampant across the world, impeding peace. I find it frustrating whenever I study a gendered language. Who truly cares if the table or map is masculine or feminine? It is a table or a map. Similarly, who cares if we are masculine or feminine? Plenty of us currently, but should we? Why do we busy ourselves so much with how others live life in their lane? What if we each focused instead on what we can control?
Let everyone sweep in front of [their] own door, and the whole world will be clean.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Can you imagine a clean and gender-neutral world? I can; I think the idea could bring plenty of peace. How quickly might we eliminate wage gaps based on it? What if we balance out the roles of and responsibility for breadwinning, kinkeeping, and such? Everyone has their pluses and minuses; we each have natural gifts and traits. If we individualize identifications by peacefully passing up on preconceived notions and improving implicit bias, we can begin to break the cookie cutter molds. We can stop coloring collective groups in broad swaths; besides, that approach is lazy and untrue; it is rude and impersonal. Peace is personal. You find it yourself, and you share it individually with each person you come across. You can slowly begin to retrain your brain peacefully.
True peace with oneself and with the world around us can only be achieved through the development of mental peace.
-Dalai Lama
Consider the opposite. If you are not spreading peace, then what mental problems are you harboring? Why voluntarily carry suffering around with you? Does it do any good, or is it holding you back and limiting your full, peaceful potential? I prefer powerful peace.
I am a sugjester; I prefer they/them.
Maybe it is wise; maybe it is dumb; time will tell.