Naming Things

Lately I've been writing some words capitalized. Why? I guess I stole it from The Tao of Pooh. The reason I stole it is, I think, a good one.

Sometimes it's helpful to name things. I am, like most people, afraid of Unknown Things. What better way to make something familiar than to give it a name? If there's a name for something it doesn't seem as mysterious. So if you feel desperately lonely and sad you can say, I'm in a Lonely Place. That makes it seem better somehow. Here we are in Lonely Place—it's just a place, like a dot on a map, and you can drive away as soon as you like. You're not stuck there forever.

Somehow giving things names makes them solid in my brain. They now occupy a space. And whenever something was given a name in The Tao of Pooh, I always had this experience—oh, that thing that's been buzzing around my brain my whole life, that's what it's called. There's a name for this feeling, and other people have thought about this too, and other people have been here too, and I'm not Alone.

And isn't that nice?