Daily Blog #6: Name Thyself

The other day I had this uncomfortable feeling around my ankle bone. It felt inflamed, swollen… irritating me for a few hours as I wrote at my desk, until I finally pushed back my chair and looked down to investigate it. I pulled back my sock and there was a small bump. A mosquito bite. The second I recognized it as such, it started itching. I quickly scratched it and the bump turned white surrounded by the pink inflamed skin, like all annoying bites do of those tiny despicable vampire gnats. But before I had put a name to the discomfort it was a nebulous uncomfortable feeling, my brain not able to discern the problem until it was visually identified. And once it was, the experience became specific, familiar. The power of a name.
It makes me think of all the things we give power to by naming them. Because of past associations and social constructs. I think of the people in my direct vicinity who have power because of their ‘names’: police officers, agents, directors, insert famous last name ‘here’. Our brains are conditioned to have certain experiences once something has been named, like the acute itch of that recognized mosquito bite, instead of something different or vague. What are all the things in our lives that we give specific meaning to because it has been named? What does your NAME mean to you? What do you want it to mean… (this could be a whole post unto itself.)
And conversely, what are the things that we could have power over, if we named them. Like our fears. Demystifying them into a tangible thing that can be remedied with some calamine cream (it cures everything). This is a short post, because it’s Saturday. And because it is such, social construct and my past experiences say that I, Taryn, shouldn’t be working that much.
Taryn, and all that that means to me, may come to a different conclusion in the future.
