The meaning of names

 

 

 

Originally you just had a location where you trained.

 

It was not a dojo, rather a stretch of beach, or a location in a forest, or an instructor’s back yard.

 

There were no titles, you didn’t need them, everyone there knew what everyone else there was about. What they knew, what their skill was.

 

You did not associate openly with other training groups, except for those instances where they were already friends. The training was meant to be private for the group and you were expected to honor that idea.

 

I have been nothing but Victor Smith to the kids,   Victor to the friends who train with me. And I always felt comfortable answering to ‘Hey You’.

 

We have never talked about rank in the group. Many of my adult students were never told my rank for most of their years.

 

I have conducted training in Boys Clubs and Boys and Girls Clubs, on hillsides and in parks, on narrow bridges, admist rows of blueberry bushes,  Outside on snowy driveways, on uneven ground, on a row of sections of a tree that was cut down and many other places.

Always felt my own rank was the least important thing about me. Sweat equity always mattered more.

 

Out of politeness I always called anyone whatever they need to be called.

 

Names are just words after all.

1. The word is not the thing.

2. The word never describes all the thing being discussed.

3. Words are self-reflexive, meaning those words not describing the reality are themselves capable of being seen as things.

  

Thus,

1. Words are never the reality which is the person.

2. Words never describe the whole person.

3. Words become things themselves.

My own take on General Semantics. A study to understand how words are used to describe reality.