There Is a Space Between the Binary Labels of Male and Female that Connects Us All as Human Beings

We are all worthy of dignity and freedom of self-expression.

In 2005, I bought my first translation of the Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell.

Verse 11 of the Tao Te Ching is one of my favourites for what it reveals about how we think and understand the world.

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.

Without the formless space inside the physical form of the clay pot, there would be no “space” for holding contents like water or food.

Without the formless space, the hole in the centre of the wheel around which spokes create a physical container, there would be no “space” for the axle to enter.