"Our names,
How tiring it was for our parents
to find our names?
How long they thought of us?
Names are words
What's with words?
Our eyes are our own names"
That what a Lebanese lyric says
What these words called "names" have to with our own lives. There are a lot of personality analysis which are based on names, letters and number of letters but I never really cared. I am against stereotyping and it's just silly to suggest another way of to stereotype people, and according to what? According to their names? Whether John or Salim, Jane or Salima, why do we categorize people according to their names?
Isn't it funny that some other than you decide to pick a name for you to be called for the rest of your life and on the other hand it is used by someone else other than you and still that name define you? I've always thought at certain age people should have the right to decide which name they should be called.
When I was in elementary school, one of my best friends was Osama*. He had health problems and used to be very tiny compared to other boys in our class. He used to be in my team in whatever game we used to play, even when we played "bet beyot" (a game we used to play that imitate real life, where kids pretend they are family, neighbors and friends) he used to be my son or my brother. Osama's family decided to leave Iraq during 1995 and that's when I discovered he was Palestinian. The class missed Osama and I remember when a boy was teasing any of the girls we would remind him how Osama was friendly with us. We used to write collective letters to him but they were never sent, for he left and we were never able to trace him. I liked the name Osama but lately people carrying this name are being discriminated.
It's such a shame when certain names carry the bad images of the figures who once carried them, and it's even worse when other people who have nothing to do with what this name carries are being treated accordingly.
Juliet:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name
Speaking of names couple of days back, a friend told me about the name Osayd, which is a miniature of Asaid (cub & lion) and was joking if the kid can change his name once he's 18 into Asaid, since he'll be fully grown. It was a nice joke but later after a couple of hours it hit me! I'm supposed to be a grown up but my name is holding me back!
I referred earlier what was my real name and to sum up the story it means a baby gazelle that still can hardly stand, let alone walk. My mother wanted to call me Reem which means a fully grown up fast gazelle. I never wanted to be Reem but the idea of me running fast like a gazelle and free in the wild where beautiful nature exists is very exciting to me now.
Juliet:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
What if I had another name? What would you call me?
*Osama is a name for lion too.
That's all for now
Labels: Thoughts
