in an actual written system
can be found on clay tablets dating
from the Jemdet Nasr period
in Sumeria between 3200 and 3101 BC.
I have four names tattooed on my body:
one of a dead friend,
one of a dead cousin,
one is my daughter's,
and one of an ex lover.
I considered changing my last name,
making it Marcel, my middle name,
thus making it more mine,
because I have no real connection to my last name,
other than history.
If Haile Selassie,
whom some remember as a bit of a biker
from his days of exile in the West of England,
had been stretched to 6’ and given a part in Easy Rider,
he would have looked rather like me.
An improbable confection of eyes,
hollow cheeks, frizzy facial hair, and band t-shirt,
but although the impression that I am a low-life lion
of the interstate is strenuously maintained by name,
and rousing reputation.
There is nothing that distinguishes humanity
from the rest of the animal kingdom more
than the idea of individual identity,
exemplified by conferral of a name,
but concomitantly they did not start as sterile monikers.
At a cocktail party, a conversation between two ancient Egyptians
would be 'Hi, my name is Living Image of Amun'...
'Pleased to meet you! My name is The Beautiful One Has Come!"
It would not be heard as 'Hi, my name is Tutankhamun'...
'Pleased to meet you! My name is Nefertiti!"
We rarely think too much about what names
like 'John Cartwright', or Mike Brown actually mean,
but there are exceptions: Ryan means King,
I don't know what Buynak means,
and occasionally I do think of it as more than a set of sounds or letters that designate me.
So the next time you visit Starbucks,
imagine having this conversation:
You: I'd like a Vente Iced Latte.
Barista: Your Name?
You: The Living Image of the Iridescent Higgs Field Customer.
At a cocktail party, a conversation between two ancient Egyptians
would be 'Hi, my name is Living Image of Amun'...
'Pleased to meet you! My name is The Beautiful One Has Come!"
It would not be heard as 'Hi, my name is Tutankhamun'...
'Pleased to meet you! My name is Nefertiti!"
We rarely think too much about what names
like 'John Cartwright', or Mike Brown actually mean,
but there are exceptions: Ryan means King,
I don't know what Buynak means,
and occasionally I do think of it as more than a set of sounds or letters that designate me.
So the next time you visit Starbucks,
imagine having this conversation:
You: I'd like a Vente Iced Latte.
Barista: Your Name?
You: The Living Image of the Iridescent Higgs Field Customer.