My
wife calls out to the Cat that lives with us, and Cat looks up at
her. It occurs to me that Cat knows her name. Then it occurs to me
how arbitrary her name is. Then it occurs to me that my name is
similarly arbitrary. I think of how it connects me to relatives and
heritage and to my family, but it also binds me to a fixed state of
“Joel-ness” that I associate with my name. Then I think about how
any kind of naming can have this limiting effect.
Today,
I will be paying attention to the possible limiting effects of
naming, and doing my best to avoid these imposed limits.
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