The long shadow of humility

What is your name? How will I find you in 7 billion people?

As humans, we had to tame the Universe by naming objects.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the organisation who regulates names of celestial bodies. There are several Catalogues and I find it all quite confusing.

Modern catalogs are populated with information gathered from high-resolution and sensitive telescopes. Their name will be based on their position in the sky. According to Wikipedia: “An example of such a designation is SDSSp J153259.96-003944.1, where the initialism SDSSp indicates that the designation is from the "Sloan Digital Sky Survey preliminary objects", and the other characters indicate celestial coordinates.”

What is in a name? As an immigrant every time I mention my name I realise that I am NOT in my country of origin. Even when I explain my name is Magda, short for Magdalena, I am still called Magma and Magna. Really … is it that difficult to say Mag/DA?

I once saw on a website that my name is that of a woman who lives in Magdala close to the sea of Galilee.

I have seen on another site that the name could also refer to a strong tower in what was ancient Magdala. I know I am seen by others as a “strong tower.” That is only partly true.

According to numerology, people with my name “have a deep inner desire to lead, organise, supervise, to achieve status, power and wealth.” I can only smile. Status, power and wealth is NOT my thing. The first three is only partly true as well. I think much of it is because of being the oldest of 5 siblings.We are so eager to categorise, name, ascribe meaning… our meaning. That is how we function.

Did my name contribute to my character? I am not sure. Did the location where I grew up contributed to my character? For sure. Is my essence tied up in my name? Not sure. I have asked people to call me Magda, I was for a time called Lena (which I hated) and Maggie (this made me smile because I am not a Margaret). Nowadays I tell people to call me “M,” since I am NOT MagMA or MagNA.

What is in a name? Everything.

What is your name and how will I find you?

We don’t have a catalog with coordinates.

As I roam in life, I find like-minded people. People I “click” with. We say it is a “gut” feeling.

At an atomic level, your stardust and my stardust could come from the same place in the Universe. Ha-ha. Unprovable I know, but it is such a crazy, fantastic idea!

There is only one word I can think of when it comes to names. That is the word “Mana” in the Maori language. This is from the nz.geo.com website: “There are more cautionary notes in Maoridom dealing with mana than you could shake the proverbial stick at. It is a source of both personal and collective strength, pride and identity. Mishandled, it becomes the bearer shame, ridicule, and embarrassment. If mana allows us to walk tall, then it also cast a long shadow – humility.” Thank you, Chris Winitana to remind us.