I ask because a book and a movie in the past week have made me wonder. In The Poisonwood Bible, when a girl named Adah narrates, she speaks of learning from a native boy in the Congo the importance of *nommo* – names. The boy says that you cannot afford to give things the wrong names, because then they will cease to be what they are. Intriguing. A child without a name is nothing. And in Spirited Away (which everyone should see since it has been rereleased after winning a well-deserved Oscar), the witch Yubaba steals people’s names as a means of controlling them. Hmmm. Perhaps it is Western Society that has no belief in the power of a name. And who’s to say who’s right? If there is a right…
On a side note, I got into Harvard this week. Go figure. I didn’t really want to go there but Cambridge is nice and I’m being cajoled into considering it, even if I still end up choosing Stanford in the end. I really lucked out…gees. I’m sad that spring break is ending. I have an essay to write and two government projects. Ack. Getting college mail is like a short mental vacation, floating on a happy cloud, before you return to reality, which involves work and time and lost sleep, and which seems far removed from something as ethereal as “getting into Harvard.”
I’m going to miss my friends next year….
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