If You Call A Tail A Leg...Would It Still Smell As Sweet?

Well, would it?

Sometime yesterday, when I was distracted and doing my own thing, my sister started wondering about names.

"Isn't it weird," she mused. "How everyone has a name? What's a name, anyway? Why can't people just say, 'Hey! Brown-Eyes!.'"

I distractedly replied as I stared at my computer screen, probably reading blogs, "I don't know, but wouldn't it be awful confusing if we called each other by our eye color? You know how many Brown-Eyes there'd be?"

But now that I think about it, that is kind of how names originated. People called each other by attributes, like Light Foot or Swift Deer or Sitting Bear or Running Horse. Then there were job names; Miller, Hunter, Miner, Locksmith. Sitting Bear the Butcher. Things like that. Well, no, it probably would have been more like John the Butcher. But still. Our surnames today still reflect that whole profession-as-your-last-name thing.

It's funny, though, how all cultures knew instinctively that they had to name people. People were individuals from the start. It's sort of a Jungian way of thinking - the collective unconscious. Sort of like how many cultures had very similar folk tales, even though they had no contact with each other until much later on.

My sister was also befuddled by the fact that, "Erachet, you only answer to 'Erachet.' If I called you 'Aliza,' you wouldn't turn around." I guess that's because we're all used to our names. We wouldn't recognize it if someone called us by something else. But also, there is an element of, this is your name, you are [insert name here.] Don't they say that parents get an element of ruach hakodesh when naming their children? Names have always been of the utmost importance. We add on names when people are sick. Names give us attributes - or maybe names highlight our attributes. Would you be the same person if you had a different name?

Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet?

Of course, the joke about "if you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a sheep have?" completely ruins this idea, that names have any significance. But actually, if you analyze the joke, does it mean how many legs in essence or how many body parts called 'leg?' Because if it's the former, as the joke assumes, then, of course, the sheep still only has four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one (...or does it? haha). But if the latter...then the sheep actually has five. If you call a tail a leg and then ask how many legs a sheep has, you have to include ALL the legs.

Then again, the name of a thing without sentience might not mean as much as a thing with. People, for instance, like I was just talking about. I think it is definitely true, a person behaves based on what they are called. Sometimes, at least. For instance, if you call someone stupid, he might behave stupidly. If you call someone brave, he might overcome his fears and prove you right. If you tell someone he's talented, he might gain the confidence to try new things and excel at them. So what you call someone really does matter.

It sort of reminds me of the Stern play, which was about a girl, Nattie, who a group of people thought was the Messiah. There was one line that Nattie's helper-person, Melanie, said that kind of stuck in my memory. It was something like, "does a child distinguish between what she is and what she is called?" And I think the answer to that would be, to an extent, yes. If you call a child by something she is not, she won't respond. She is her given name, so the analogy doesn't work. With Nattie, she is Nattie, and her identity up until that point has been Nattie the make-up artist. To give her a new identity all of a sudden, especially one she is pushing away, will change who she has been for so long. Sitting Bear, John the Butcher, Nattie the Make-Up Artist. And I think the whole point of that scene was, even though Nattie's actual job wouldn't change, whether she was called 'leader' or 'Messiah,' to give her the name 'Messiah' would be saying she is the Messiah. Because names matter, they have meaning.

The more I write this entry, the deeper I'm thinking about this. In any case, I already edited and added twice, so I'm going to make myself stop here. But answer me this name question:

What's the deal with steel wool? Is it steel or is it wool? Are there iron sheep jumping around Scotland? (quoted from the Janitor in Scrubs)