Labels

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” *

Names help us to make sense of the world. Humankind has bestowed names for things as far back as history tracks and for the majority, this desire to label things, to give a unique identity, to categorize and organise, has offered some way of helping us understand the world around us, to share our knowledge and to give meaning.

But does naming an object really enable us to appreciate it the more, or does it detract, distract us from its inner essence, from the wonder that we feel at the mystery of it?

When a child sees a tree for the first time and is amazed at its vastness, its power, growth, strength, beauty, its immensity, what does it mean when the child learns that this towering giant is called a ‘tree’? And further still, when it learns to differentiate an oak from an ash, a yew from a willow?

Some argue that labels create barriers, that names are mere masks…that once we learn a name then we feel an ownership that breaks the magic and awe and files the object away with all the others.

Does knowing a name bring us closer, or distance us? Does familiarity breed contempt or respect?

For what does the tree care that we call it a tree? And yet, by learning that a yew is poisonous and that hazel nuts are edible does benefit our existence…or is the point of learning to then un-learn? Once we have gained all the knowledge, can we then let it go and realise the unity of all things once more?

*William Shakespeare