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Sunday 4 July 2010

What's in a Name?

I don't know if you ever did this as a child, but on hazy days when the lesson would drawl into infinity, I would sometimes cast a sidelong glance through the dust speckled air at someone at another desk and wonder what it would be like to be them. Or perhaps, more simply to have been called by their name. And then I would fall to wishing like Shakespeare (with apologies for the change of gender!): Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like her, like her with friends possessed, Desiring this one's art, this one's scope...,. But I knew I would somehow always be me - even if my parents had blessed me with the name of Keturah Targett, like the maker of this sampler here - also from the 6th July Woolley and Wallis auction. (How wonderful it is that she talks of her grandmother taking care of her!) So, I came to understand a name is ... simply a name. For it to be more....it has to be ... to do things, make choices, take risks and responsibilities, breathe its own life - in the same way as Liberty and Freedom and Peace are simply names and nothing more without our breath and brains to give them legs.... Unless we are Liberty, Freedom and Peace ourselves. Happy 4 July!

1 comment:

  1. You have left us wise words and lots to think about today. Thanks. Roseanne

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