Creating + naming = ?

“To name a thing is to acknowledge its existence as separate from everything else that has a name; to confer upon it the dignity of autonomy while at the same time affirming its belonging with the rest of the namable world; to transform its strangeness into familiarity, which is the root of empathy.”

Let’s break this down:

Creating + naming = empathy

Artists are masters of empathy. Some of the best humans we all know are the most empathetic. But also, what other things can we name? Our kids, our jobs, our homes, our friends, our family, our pets, our daily rhythms, our food, our paintings, our songs, our creation, our thoughts.

All things that we love. All things that we are responsible for creating thoughts about. All the more reason to be thoughtful about naming things. I love that names mean things. I guess I wanted to bring this up because we forget how powerful it is to name and to have a name. My name is Amy. It means Beloved. I am beloved. I am loved. I just finished a painting and I named it Wellesley Ave, the street that I grew up on. Just a little side note. I think I also wanted to celebrate the fact that we all have this gift. We can all name things.