The Power to Name
How will you name and claim your space and voice in your communities?
Psalm 49: 5-6, 10-11
Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own.
What more can be said than what the Psalmist notices at this moment.
The rich seek to name things for themselves, hoping that in doing so they won’t die but will forever be remembered. I’m reminded of the idea that everyone dies twice. Once when our bodies return to dust, and again when people mention our names for the last time.
Remaking the world, renaming the world in your own image is a fool’s errand. Many of these efforts are benign. The name will die with the fool who thought this would cement their legacy. Using the power to name in order to malign people and populations is for idiots and dolts.
The power to name belongs to the community, to the people, to the ones whose voices are often silenced in the efforts to claim power over rather than share power with.
How will you name and claim your space and voice in your communities? What silences you, apart from yourself sometimes?