Verbs

Tuesday, 9 September 2008

A nice coincidence: today, while painting a toilet door somewhere, I got the idea to write about an idea that I had years ago, but that I have not yet mentioned in this blog. In one of the video’s of Stan Tenen, he says that his talent is to recognise visual patterns. No doubt that he is good at recognising visual patterns, but in my opinion he is most of all good at “stantenen”. Just like I am good at “fritsjonkeren”. Verbalizing one’s name sounds better in Dutch, but you’ll get the idea.
A lot of problems and frustration are caused because our society values certain talents more than others. But everybody is unique: there is nobody on this planet who has the same set of talents, qualities, desires and abilities as anybody else. Therefore any competition or comparison between individuals is basically nonsense. To say one is good at certain things, is also nonsense, and it is limiting the person to something that will never make him or her fully happy. Even if you are a brilliant visual pattern recogniser, you also want to have sex, eat ice creams and whatever.
When people ask me what I am, or what I do for a living, I answer “fritsjonkeren”. There is nobody who can “fritsjonkeren” as I can! And it is very easy for me. In fact, it is impossible for me not to “fritsjonker”. Everything I do, no matter what or how I do it, is “fritsjonkeren”.
Buckminster Fuller once said ”I seem to be a verb”. I never heard him say this, so I don’t know what he meant with it, but it is exactly what I mean. When this idea pops up in my head, I am often reminded of the saying ”what’s in a name?”. The answer is that our very soul is in our name.
I think it would be an interesting experiment to teach children at school that their uniqueness is in their name. I see so many children (and grown ups too) suffer from constantly running the competition- and comparison-software that they have downloaded on their mental hard disc. Many people seem to have almost forgotten what it is to be themselves; they are constantly trying to be (like) somebody else or at least comparing themselves with others.
Of course, all esoteric traditions teach people to be themselves, but the word is too abstract. Everybody thinks that he/she is him/herself, even if they have not realised one percent of their full potential. To use the name as a verb might help to understand what one is, what makes one unique, and how to connect with one’s soul.
Tonight I listened to a lecture by Robert Anton Wilson. To my surprise he mentions the quote by Buckminster Fuller, and even explains what it means. And he does it much better than I could, so here is that fragment:

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