Your Name

This is inspired by Rackara Rackara’s post I related to it because there was a student named so in my high school and the insensitive me unknowingly called him Rachkara, when I noticed the reaction,I stuck with the so called first name. My mind ran to the book, Flame of Freedom that details, Raila Amolo Odinga’s life, at a young age he was almost not baptised because he didn’t have a Christian/First Name. Very amazing !. I find the reasoning petty and I don’t see any Christian traits in my ‘first name ‘,Roland. Yesterday ,I was explaining why I took on a new identity after reflection and decolonization. I don’t know why I can’t baptize my children using the traditional names. Coming to names,I have a take though I stick with Traditional names

While in perfect health, I attended a leadership training, a week prior to our orientation/selection, we were asked to bring an object from home that best describes us. People brought pictures of their pets, their jewelry; their favourite books…all sorts of objects that best describe them. Then the cynical me brought nothing, up with nothing in my hands. All were surprised, because we understood the instruction to mean a physical object. But I stood before all and uttered these words:
“I do not have an object that best describes me. I looked for it but I found none that can truly capture who I really am. It dawned on me then, that the one thing that best describes me is my name…”
Everyone found that to be the most powerful presentation of that night. I captured in a few words what scholars and academics of Consciousness have been trying to capture in centuries.
The most important thing you have in this world is your name. You will have no other in any lifetime. This is the name that will be remembered long after you are dead. It is a legacy that you will leave this world with. And it is not just a sound, a proper noun. No. Your name is everything.