Originally published for rrarre.

In Swedish we have a saying “kärt barn har många namn” which translates into “a dear child has many names”. This saying has come to mind many times in my exploration of the domains connected to the inner process of developing emotionally, cognitively and spiritually as a human. I have come across so many names of this that it deserves some reflection. Just a few examples – inner development, self development, empowerment, maturity development, adult development, flourishing, consciousness development, awareness development…

Humans have many more or less automatic practices worth scrutinising. One of them is our obsession with naming stuff. Language is fantastic, a real super power for us humans. But it seems we disregard its limitations. And its normative power. We say “this is a rose” rather than “we call this a rose”. The difference is subtle but very clear once we think about it a bit – assigning conceptual identity. In the accelerating speed of human life this is very efficient. But we seldom reflect over the paradoxical price, disconnection from what we name. Just think of the name “nature”. What does it imply? Well, for me it is clear that naming nature has made “it” an object and we humans are separate from “it”.

Back to the beginning of my text. At rrarre our mission is roughly to “create exceptional conditions for self development in the workplace”.  Because of this we are really bending our minds to come up with a name that works for us, and have so far not really succeeded. Other people and organisations have chosen their terminology, which we unwillingly are influenced by. Do we or do we not want to be associated with that term and/or person/organisation? Conceptual identity at play again…

I’m not sure I can pull it off but I’d like to invite my colleagues to care less about finding the perfect name and more go with whatever each of us feel works in the contexts we inhabit. That way I hope we can stay connected to the essence of what people may have many different names for – a process of developing a profound inner sense of expansion, interconnectedness, meaning and joy, even in the face of great personal adversity and troubling pan-global predicaments. The name is not important. The process is. Having many names for the process is perhaps as our Swedish saying implies – a sign of great affection and love.

–– Jan de Man Lapidoth