A ‘Doing’ by Harvey Taylor. Not a Thing.
Getting to Grips with Nominative Determinism
What is a name?
Not something you hold
Not something you put in a bucket
Names do not come in boxes or arrive on trains
Though they often bring their own luggage
And remain long past their welcome
A name can be bold and tenacious
Stubborn
Persistent like a zit on your nose
A name can startle
Even seem to explain
Or determine
Our journey through life
Mr Savage the Butcher
Ms Blizzard the Weather
Wayne Kerr of UKIP
A name can be plain like Smith
Or illusory as in Asif
It can embody encapsulate define and depict
A name can describe or merely imply
Like a fly that only thinks it can fly
It can summarise in a summary judicial way
A villain a crook a priest who mistook
Not merely unfair
Simply not really there
A name is nothing but something
As insubstantial as air
To name something or someone is clearly a risk
But to name what we do and we think and we feel
Is like freezing a film and cementing the reel
In one place forever
Forever know no more
Fixed
Embedded
Like the name of a whore
There are things we do in body and mind
Some cruel like self-loathing some kind
Sequential streams of sights and sounds
Physiological sensations
Perceived and enacted in imaginary realms we give names to
Like essence and spirit and being
The Real Me!
Yet now as well as at the end of the day
And tomorrow at breakfast
And throughout yesterday
There was really nothing there at all
Just electro-chemical reactions
Following well-worn pathways
Like wanted or perhaps less desirable relations
Turning up for unexpected or entirely predictable holidays
Depression Anxiety Psychosis Neurosis OCD
Bi Polar Multiple or Borderline Personality Disorder
And our favourite
Oppositional Defiance Disorder
Joy Laughter Bliss and Integrity
Contentment Satisfaction Drive and Ennui
These are not THINGS but processes
Something we DO
In infinitely variable imaginative ways
From now until the end of the end of our days
Malleable, plastic
At times stuck in ruts
But subject to will and mental rehearsal
To consolidation and strategic dispersal
So let fly the dogs of dynamism
Throw off the shackles of nominative determinism
Or at the very least change your name on a moderately frequent and responsible basis
Today I shall be known as Mr Goestothebeachwithchildwhoneedsadayout
Tomorrow I shall be known as Mr Staysinbedandtriestopersuadehiswifetogetuptomischief
Next week I am experimenting with names from the Indian sub-continent
And in July I will be called Mrs Barbiedollqueue
For which there will be tickets
If you would like some suggestions for new names or advice on how to keep changing please BOOK a FREE initial consultation with Harvey Taylor Hypnotherapist
