The Horton Criteria

The Horton Criteria

Some of you will remember fondly the wit and charm of Dr Seuss fondly. He wrote such immortal classics as ‘The Cat in the Hat’, ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ and ‘Horton Hears a Who’.

His phrases have echoed with me down over the years, like ‘I do not like them, Sam I am’ and

‘A person is a person no matter how small.’

We glimpse this simple ‘Horton truth’ especially in children. We know that they are infinitely precious. A real person who gradually reveals more of themselves over time. A living, dancing, jumping, laughing, vulnerable, enjoyable miracle.

But somehow, as the years whizz by and they grow up, we become very adept at attaching labels to them. We have become very inventive at this process, and there seems to be no end to the labels we can affix to people and the way we attach them.

We have a plethora of gender labels, and the labels that tell us how others express themselves most intimately. We have labels describing our origin, our place of worship (if we have one), our current address and what colour tie our favourite politician wears, if, in fact, they wear one at all.

Sadly, I strongly suspect that we are not done with this labelling process, and we will find new designer labels to affix to our brothers and sisters. I am open to being convinced that the whole labelling thing is jolly unhelpful and very unproductive.

At the moment, I find it disappointing and restrictive. By focusing on one label, we are limiting our thinking to one singular aspect of the other. The reality is that people are much more like a kaleidoscope with unending multiples of colours and dimensions.

Couldn’t we just use the ‘Horton criteria’. ‘A person is a person no matter how small?’