For most of us Anglos, our names are derived from the vocation of our forefathers. I’m a Bailey. Somewhere in my lineage there was a big, bald and exceedingly handsome bailiff that dreamed of being a dancer. Smiths, besides reproducing like rabbits, generally have a blacksmith somewhere in their familial tree.
I’ll never shake hands with a Cockburn.
What we did as a living was so intrinsically tied to our identity as a person, it actually became our name. Flash forward to twenty seventeen and not much has changed. We still judge and identify people by what they do, not who they are.
Thanks to celebrities we have wonderful names in circulation such as Apple, Pilot Inspektor and Moxie Crimefighter (yes, those are real names) that, surprisingly, don’t give away too much about what they do in life. One of the first questions we tend to ask when meeting someone new is ‘What do you do?’. Their answer will immediately shape our thoughts on the person.
There’s a quote from John Lennon. He said ‘When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life.’
He did also say ‘I am the Eggman, they are the Eggman, I am the Walrus, Goo Goo Goojoob’ so, you know, one might think twice before blindly following him as their spirit guide but the sentiment rings true.
It’s drilled into us from a young age that we must ‘be something’ to be valuable in society, to be happy. Kids are bombarded with the question from adults ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’. More often than not, I feel the adults are asking the question to inspire themselves but it reinforces to the child that they need to make some monumental decision that will shape their life and who they are.
I find who a person is, infinitely more interesting than what a person does. I want to know what someone does to feed their soul, not what they do to feed their bills. The two aren’t mutually exclusive and quite often what we do for work will reflect our values in life but I don’t think we need to ‘grow up’ and ‘be’ something to be either happy or valuable to those around us. If we need a label to make us feel good about ourselves, well, we’re all human! Isn’t that enough?
All The Figs 