Monday, October 07, 2002
What's In a Name?
While travelling through Georgia last week I got a small paper from one of the communities we stopped in. I was struck by the names listed in the Birth Announcements section - Ja'Corria, Kalika, and Sabrekkia. In the past, I was always put out by names like these, because I felt the parents were giving their children names that were so unusual it would make it hard for the children to fit in society. Today, however, I appreciate names like this more and more. The worlds full of Stephanies, and Jennifers, and Rachels, but I doubt there are more than a handful with these girls' names. It gves them a fuller sense of having an individual personality just through their name itself. And that's kind of cool.
Also cool - last night we were listening to Public Radios "Sounds of Africa", and they played a piece by a musician by Senegal in which you could clearly hear the origins of modern blues and zydeco music in the United States. It's amazing to be able to hear the origins of musical styles from halfway across the world. Speaking of which - did you know the Egyptians invented the bag pipes? It was in turn adopted by the Romans, and the legions eventually carried to Scotland.
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