Free Friday

Determining One's Paganicity (yes I made that up)

I've seen a lot of discussion lately regarding what/who a pagan is, and it has made me think.  Mostly 2 key things pop into my mind.

1. Does it matter?
2. If it does matter where would you possibly begin?

As to the first, people will probably get upset at me for thinking that but I have to say I really do hate labels.  Yes I know as a society we love to label things, it makes the world more succinct, but guess what - the world is messy, embrace it.  Why is it we have to come to some form of consensus as to how to label ourselves?  Are we trying to make ourselves more comfortable or others?  This I guess leads into part 2.  If you are determined to label and define how the heck do you plan to do that?  To me it seems about as easy as herding cats.  If we run with the general idea here that most people who call themselves (or that others call) pagan couldn't sit down and agree on a set of standards that all of them follow, nor do the majority want a governing body that would create this list for them, then how does one come up with a definition that covers everyone?  You sure as hell won't find a definition that doesn't make someone unhappy.  This once again cycles me back to point 1, why does it matter? If someone can give me a good answer to this I'm willing to listen, as of yet I haven't encountered one.