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Welcome back to the imagination 
redeemed podcast. 

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My name is Brooke McIntyre and 
I'm so excited to be here. 

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First of all said that I can 
wish you a Merry Christmas. 

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And secondly because today I get
to share a chapter by Marilyn 

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McIntyre called The Art of 
naming that she contributed to 

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the Anselm societies, why we 
create series now? 

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Sadly, I am not actually related
to Maryland. 

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McIntyre despite sharing a last 
name, but I am a huge fan. 

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Marilyn McIntyre is a writer 
poet, professor and speaker and 

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I like to think of her as a 
keeper of words. 

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She's written several books, 
including caring for words, in a

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culture of lies and word by 
word, a daily spiritual 

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practice. 
In this chapter, she talks about

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the naming role that God gave 
humankind. 

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This role allows us to look for 
the significance and the He's 

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made to derive, meaning from 
them, and to join him and 

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putting the finishing touches on
things for which he obviously 

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had a Clear Vision, she writes 
about how understanding naming 

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not only allows us to better 
understand our relationship with

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the created order but also our 
relationship with God. 

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The first Creator in the first 
name. 

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ER so without further Ado, here 
is her chapter the art of naming

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My daughter's. 
Remember a moment when we paused

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on a walk by a particularly 
beautiful Deep Purple stand of 

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lobelia that's so pretty one of 
them said what's it called for 

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some reason? 
At that moment I couldn't recall

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its name, I'm not sure. 
I replied a bit abashed, I'll 

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look it up but her sister lept 
into the breach. 

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I think I'll call it Ralph. 
She announced her decisiveness 

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and clarity about the matter 
made us laugh. 

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And, and still does, when we 
happen to see a bit of lobelia 

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in our family, I'm afraid it's 
still Ralph. 

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Naming things is a particular 
pleasure. 

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We Begin early with dolls dogs. 
Now and again, a caterpillar or 

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a stray cat, which once it's 
been named becomes a candidate 

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for adoption, even the smallest 
children, know that bestowing 

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and name establishes a 
relationship and that being 

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called by name and by sundry 
nicknames And endearments is a 

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sign and seal of loving 
connection. 

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Many of them. 
Also know that when their full 

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name is called first middle and 
last slowly and emphatically, 

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they may be in trouble. 
The Namer has power, The Giver 

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of the name, has a claim on the 
one named I have called you by 

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name and you are mine, the Lord 
proclaims to his people in 

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Isaiah. 
And that ringing Assurance is 

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followed by a That reaches back 
to the Red Sea and forward to 

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Jesus's, farewell to his 
disciples. 

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When you pass through the 
waters, I will be with you to 

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have been called by name is to 
be known, claimed loved and 

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sustained. 
And also to have been summoned 

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into a relationship with 
profound obligations and 

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consequences. 
What's in a name naming comes up

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in the Old Testament? 
Almost 800 times in the hole. 

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All of scripture, nearly 1,000 
leaving little question as to 

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its importance. 
Given names signify character or

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commemorate life-changing 
encounters there, sometimes 

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assigned by Divine mandate, your
name is Israel, you shall call 

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his name Ishmael or John or 
Jesus. 

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And sometimes changed as a sign 
of conversion, Simon to Peter, 

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Saul to Paul the earliest 
instance of God's consigning to 

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The pleasure and power of naming
comes in the second chapter of 

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Genesis, and whatever the man 
called every living creature. 

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That was his name, the 
consequences of the gift of the 

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power, to name for good and lll,
continue to unfold, what we call

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things changes them. 
When we name something, we frame

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it, we assign it a place in the 
linnaean system of 

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classification, or in a family 
lineage or in a social 

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hierarchy. 
We assign people to Titles and 

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forms of address that come with 
access to property or privilege 

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literal entitlement and we give 
stories titles that entice or 

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suggest or foreshadow what will 
come to matter to us as we step 

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through the looking glass or 
wardrobe and suspend disbelief 

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to read them, is to give hours 
or days of our time to at the 

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ancient quest to discover, 
what's in a name? 

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Juliet's. 
Famous question. 

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What's in a name is followed by 
the self-serving argument that 

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that which we call a rose by any
other name would smell as sweet 

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but the question meant to 
dismiss the power of names. 

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Ironically implies its own 
answer, a lot lies in a name, a 

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lot is at stake in her impetuous
proposal to Romeo, to deny thy 

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father, and refuse Thy Name. 
A lot is also at stake in her 

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alternative option or if that 
It's not but be sworn my love 

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and I'll no longer be a Capulet 
for one of these two young 

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people to give up the family 
name for the other, would either

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end or intensify an ancient feud
in this place. 

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Shakespeare, who fathomed and 
celebrated The Power of Words, 

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as richly as any, who have 
wielded them lay is out the 

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tragic potential of names when 
they become signifiers for whole

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histories of conflict. 
We have only to consider what 

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has become of names like Jezebel
orgy. 

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Des Benedict Arnold or Uncle, 
Tom Shakespeare's comedies, on 

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the other hand, turn our 
attention to the Artful playful 

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possibilities of naming. 
Usually by way of renaming, 

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Rosalind becomes, Ganymede and 
Viola becomes Cesario changing 

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not only their names but their 
gender to teach their lovers 

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lessons playful. 
Though is not trivial here to a 

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great deal. 
Hangs on the giving and taking 

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of names. 
Us and the power, the women 

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claim and renaming themselves 
for their own purposes. 

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Flirt, with danger in broaching,
great cultural taboos self 

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authorization, especially in 
women, is at best, unsettling to

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those deeply anchored in 
patriarchal traditions and at 

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worst heretical. 
Not neutral entities, We see a 

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variation on the same theme of 
self authorization in The 

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Scarlet Letter, when Hester, 
Prynne finally, forgiven by her 

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harsh, judges refuses to take 
off the label, they sentenced 

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her to we're having in effect 
transformed. 

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Its meaning with hard-won irony,
she turns her badge of Shame 

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into a sign of contradiction 
defying church, and state by an 

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act of retranslation. 
We see it again. 

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In Toni Morrison's Unforgettable
character. 

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Latt in Song of Solomon. 
Who transforms her name, a male 

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name resonant with betrayal and 
cowardice and redeems. 

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It infusing it, with her own 
meaning on her own terms, 

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indeed. 
The title of the novel itself. 

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Entails a similar ironic 
reframing of the biblical love 

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poem Morrison's later novel. 
Beloved takes another, perhaps 

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even deeper look at how naming 
or not naming can change the 

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way. 
We look at both personal. 

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And cultural history. 
Beloved a child killed by her 

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mother to save her from 
enslavement goes to her grave 

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unnamed, except for that one, 
descriptor which some readers 

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have suggested stands for the 
many enslaved. 

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People whose names have been 
forgotten but whose tragic 

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history continues to break and 
break open the hearts of their 

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people. 
Among the many literary 

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explorations of the power of 
naming Charles Williams. 

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Arcane but gripping novel. 
The place of the lion, occupies 

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a unique. 
If somewhat marginal place a 

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favorite of several of the 
Oxford England's, the novel 

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deals directly and disturbingly 
with a mysterious power that 

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lies in naming. 
It is a naming, the forces of 

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Destruction that Anthony the 
protagonist establishes dominion

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over them. 
See, Louis is letter about the 

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book to Arthur Greaves from 
February 26th 1936. 

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The story reminds us lest, we 
moderns have forgotten that 

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archetypes Angels platonic forms
ideas themselves are forces at 

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work in the world and that we 
negotiate with them at our 

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Peril. 
They are not neutral entities, 

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nor our words rather than 
simple. 

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Sounds are indicators words are 
instruments. 

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That control confine consign or 
perhaps enliven and Empower they

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kill or heal. 
When we Speak them into the 

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universe. 
There is an answer. 

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Naming and claiming these 
stories and scores of others 

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point us toward a question that 
should at least from time to 

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time trouble. 
Our sleep. 

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How do we use the power to name?
And how might the creative work 

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of renaming, help to bend the 
Arc of History tour, de Justice 

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and the Arts of language towards
truth. 

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How might any of us use that 
adamic authority to revitalize 

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our relationship to the created 
order how might renaming restore

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what has been eroded or depleted
of meaning and how are we to 

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understand our responsibility 
for what we have called by name 

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and made our own to take the 
last of these questions first. 

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I would point out that history 
itself rests on naming and 

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claiming the way we think and 
talk about our own countries and

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societies is based on names that
we have inherited often to the 

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sometimes violent exclusion of 
others. 

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We live in a world after Babel 
however, we Repeat that story. 

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We must conclude that God has 
allowed. 

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Our language has to be sundered,
because of our pride, this was 

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the fall of language, and in 
this Fallen World, there is 

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competition between languages. 
Sometimes quite brutal 

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competition, all too often 
tyrants, exert, their power, by 

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attempting, to rename something,
and to destroy even the memory 

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of the old names. 
As Christians, we have the 

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ability and the obligation to 
look beyond the limitations of 

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the naming. 
We see at work in our culture's,

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we must strive to see what in 
our culture's naming is true. 

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And what is taranis? 
Where is the name, an indication

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of reality and where is it an 
attempt to Veil reality? 

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Sometimes, of course, a name can
be both of these things. 

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And that is where we must use 
Prudence to discern. 

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How we use our power of naming 
to Injustice and true knowledge 

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to our communities. 
The opposite of this virtuous 

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naming is when we try to use 
names or renaming to exert power

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over reality rather than to 
discern and reveal a reality. 

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That is hidden, for example, 
throughout history. 

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Humans have renamed regions as 
part of Conquest. 

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Sometimes the renaming takes 
place by the stroke of a pen 

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sometimes by planting a flag. 
But always with solemn words 

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that assign a new name, one that
is often Recently, proprietary 

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British East Africa, French West
Africa, Belgian Congo Spanish, 

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Guinea, German East Africa. 
This practice of coercive name, 

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changing makes it easier for 
invading governments to impose 

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unjust political and social 
policies explorers and 

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colonizers assignment of names 
overlooked or ignored. 

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Not only the claims, but the 
names given to places indigenous

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peoples, inhabited including 
sacred lands, in the case of the

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examples above part of the 
process of establishing National

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Independence and addressing 
deep-seated, Injustice has been 

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restoring old names. 
Kenya Senegal Niger, Democratic 

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Republic of the Congo. 
Rwanda, Mozambique just to name 

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a few closer to home. 
America is still wrestling with 

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the lingering scars of the slave
trade, which used an Aiming to 

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dehumanize its victims, slave 
Traders, imported ships, full of

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newly nameless, people whose 
identities had been Stripped 

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Away to this day. 
Many of their descendants still 

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carry the names of why White 
owners or ancestors, a daily, 

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reminder, of a cruel practice 
that sought to subjugate and 

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dehumanize an entire group of 
people addressing these past 

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injustices, will require us to 
face this history of unjust 

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naming right now in America. 
There are some efforts to do 

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this. 
We are seeing waves of re 

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Africanized names and 
restoration of indigenous tribal

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names for land. 
Naming non-human creation. 

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There is a similar movement in 
science right now. 

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There are intriguing 
exhilarating controversial 

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inconsequential, efforts taking 
place amongst scientists nature,

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lovers, conservationists 
preservationists and Poets to 

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rethink the words, we English 
speakers have used for non-human

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beings. 
One of the more eloquent 

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apologists for rethinking the 
way language links us to other 

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creatures is Robin wall. 
Camera, whirs, braiding 

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Sweetgrass. 
Both a professor of Botany, and 

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a member of the Potawatomi tribe
camera, organizes. 

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Her elegant Reflections around 
the central question of how to 

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integrate the insides of 
empirical science along with 

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European systems of 
classification, and naming with 

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the insights of tribal peoples 
who have lived close to their 

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lands for centuries, have known 
them intimately and have woven 

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that knowledge into highly 
poetic sometimes elliptical 

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myths. 
And teachings. 

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How for instance, might the rich
creation story of the sky woman 

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who created a garden for the 
well-being of all, be reconciled

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either with the Eden story or 
with the enlightenment infused 

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strictly impersonal descriptive,
nomenclature of Darwin, Von, 

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Humboldt and Mendel, Kemmerer 
notes, that most of her graduate

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students invested as they are in
learning have lost connection. 

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She longs to restore when they 
put More energy into memorizing 

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Latin names. 
She observes they spend less 

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time looking at the beings 
themselves. 

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Kim a book is more Invitational 
than critical indeed. 

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She expresses great respect for 
what she has learned in the lab 

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from highly skilled plant 
scientists. 

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But she also invites readers to 
a kind of humility that reaches 

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to the root of that word hummus,
which becomes a word for soil, 

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humility calls us to return to 
our own. 

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Insensate Elemental relationship
with soil, strawberries and 

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squash not primarily as products
to be purchased but is gifts 

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given to be enjoyed in a context
of gratitude and reciprocity. 

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She uses words, like community 
and relatives to describe the 

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plant lives with which humans 
interact and brings what one 

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science writer called the 
tenderness of the scientific 

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gays to bear on those beings. 
As It's and needs and strategies

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of survival in some native 
languages camera points out by 

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way. 
Of example, the term for plants 

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translates to those who take 
care of us. 

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Imagine what might shift if we 
were simply to shift the 

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pronoun, we use to describe a 
tree from what to who or spoke 

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of cows rather than livestock, 
the culture of commodification 

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seeks to drive, a wedge between 
our relationship with things as 

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creatures in our experience of 
Those things as Goods it does 

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this by introducing separate 
terms one set, the identifies 

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living beings as creatures 
participants in creation and a 

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whole separate set that 
identifies them as marketable 

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products. 
Jesus's parable of the shepherd 

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who leaves the 99 sheep to find 
and rescue. 

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The hundredth suggests a kind of
caring that remains relational, 

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even though Lambs were sold 
slaughtered and eaten. 

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The use of the names sheep and 
lamb remind us that we have a 

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relationship and 
responsibilities to these 

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animals. 
Even though we may end up eating

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them. 
Mapping the world, non-human 

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beings have their own ways of 
being, even their own ways of 

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knowing they have, as botanist 
Peter, woola been put it a 

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hidden life knowing their 
secrets, takes time, and 

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patience and some relinquishment
of anthropocentric assumptions. 

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And this knowing requires, new 
words for an or poetic or 

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sometimes fanciful to get at how
other creatures are leafy 

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protectors, and those throw 
called are A brute neighbors 

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live and move and have their 
being Tolkien provided. 

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Some of that, in his sweeping 
story of a time when 

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Middle-earth included many 
orders of living being dwarves, 

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and Hobbits and elves, and ends,
as well as humans, whose 

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coexistence was a working 
relationship rooted in an 

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understanding of 
complementarity, each kind of 

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being in Middle Earth has a 
distinctive language. 

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Its sounds, and Rhythm, and 
range of reference suited to 

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their Your and work Elvin speech
is marked by fluid loveliness 

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words and names. 
Like I knew Linda lay an aria do

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Nadine Galadriel, lothlorien 
nemuri, a and Tauriel are as 

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close as language comes to music
dwarves. 

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On the other hand have 
consonant, Rich hard-edged 

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words, like Xerox Eagle gabble 
Gothel, nuraghe and Baruch This 

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is no accident, as both a 
philologist and a man of deep 

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Faith Tolkien brought a 
sensibility to his work, that 

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Drew upon the ancient Hebrew 
understanding of naming as 

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something I would call in 
Christian terms, sacramental. 

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He also understood in conveyed, 
how words distinguish the way a 

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people sees the world and what 
they care for Common words as 

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well as names map out 
relationship with the world we 

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live inside grammatical 
structures that organize and 

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give meaning to what is given 
tolkien's, fiction and has more 

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scholarly, fill a logical 
studies. 

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All point to a fact that should 
continue to inform our curricula

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linguistic diversity, like 
biodiversity is a prerequisite 

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for a healthy Planet. 
Our complementarity and the 

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00:19:26,700 --> 00:19:29,100
patient nuanced work of 
translation. 

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Keep us in a Of creative 
tension. 

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As we work out, our means of 
production and our hopes for 

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peace. 
Known only by God clearly as 

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tolki new in. 
As camera reminds us, we share 

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this lovely fragile Earth. 
Our Island home with creatures 

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who know things we don't in one 
of his unusually light hearted 

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poems t.s. 
Eliot. 

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Offers a reminder not to assume 
that the names we impose on 

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those creatures are in any way a
final measure of who's there. 

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The opening lines of the naming 
of cats introduces, the problem,

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the naming of cats is a 
difficult matter. 

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It isn't just one of your 
holiday games. 

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The speaker goes on, to explain 
with comic earnestness that a 

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cat must have as he emphasized 
in all caps, three different 

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names in addition to the 
sensible everyday names. 

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A cat keeper, I hesitate to say 
owner might give a name that's 

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peculiar and more dignified. 
I'd there is that name that no 

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human research can discover, but
the cat himself knows and will 

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00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,100
never confess. 
I quote here, the last lines of 

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00:20:45,100 --> 00:20:47,800
the poem with some reluctance 
since to do. 

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00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,900
So offers a kind of spoiler when
I'd rather you just hasten to 

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your bookshelf or if you must 
the internet and spend a few 

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00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:56,800
delightful minutes with the 
entire poem. 

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When you notice a cat in 
profound meditation, the reason 

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I tell you is always the same, 
his mind is engaged in a rapt 

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contemplation of the thought of 
the thought of the thought of 

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his name. 
His ineffable affable Fe An 

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00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,800
affable deep and inscrutable 
singular name. 

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The poem still makes me smile 
after many readings. 

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At the way, it takes Delight in 
lists and probable names and 

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00:21:25,100 --> 00:21:28,700
invention of. 
If an ineffable, it also, 

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perhaps more importantly makes 
me remember when I see the 

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00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:35,300
neighborhood stray, cat touring,
our garden, that there is a who 

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they're known only to God and it
Shores up my conviction that the

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same is true for us. 
The one who calls us by name 

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knows that name, even though we 
ourselves do not Echoes of the 

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word paying attention to words 
and their effects, upon the 

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00:21:52,808 --> 00:21:57,200
material and spiritual orders. 
We inhabit is surely part of our

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00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:02,400
calling as people of faith, more
particularly it is a vocation 

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00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,000
for those Among Us who following
a desire of the heart given at 

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some early point in our 
Journeys, spend many of our 

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00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:13,700
waking hours with words when we 
sit at our desks moving words 

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00:22:13,700 --> 00:22:16,100
around. 
It is good to remember that. 

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We do this work for. 
Or the glory of God in the 

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00:22:18,700 --> 00:22:23,400
fullness of Creation in every 
Community, there must be some 

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00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,100
who wrestle with words and 
meanings. 

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00:22:26,700 --> 00:22:30,100
There must be some who excavate 
at am ologies as there must be 

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00:22:30,100 --> 00:22:34,000
archaeologists, who dig through 
layers of ancient soil to help 

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00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,500
link us to the cultures that 
have shaped us. 

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00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,700
There must be some who Ponder 
the shades of meaning between 

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near synonyms. 
The difference between 

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perplexity and confusion, for 
instance, or between settlement 

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00:22:45,700 --> 00:22:48,400
in occupation. 
There must be those who look 

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00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,400
upon brand names and AD copy 
with a jaundiced eye, in an 

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00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,600
informed understanding of how 
influencers turn meaning into 

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00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:58,000
manipulation. 
And there must be many, who 

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00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,500
cherish the words we inscribe 
and life-giving liturgy, and 

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00:23:01,500 --> 00:23:05,500
poetry and prayer. 
Cherishing does not prevent us 

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00:23:05,500 --> 00:23:07,500
from reaching translating from 
time to time. 

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00:23:08,100 --> 00:23:11,500
Instead, it calls us to hold on 
to what is good to pay. 

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00:23:11,500 --> 00:23:15,500
Our tithe of do attention to 
Sacred texts as they summon us 

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00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:19,100
to lift up our hearts. 
And to join in the Joyful Noise 

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00:23:19,100 --> 00:23:22,700
of a thousand tongues that daily
pray, their versions of Hallowed

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00:23:22,700 --> 00:23:25,900
be thy name. 
A line that begins in Aramaic 

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00:23:25,900 --> 00:23:30,300
with a summoning to hear the one
sound that created all others. 

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The reality of words is that 
they are always mere Echoes of 

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the great word because of this 
speaking, true words begins and 

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00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:51,200
ends with listening You've been 
listening to a podcast of the 

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00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,400
Anselm Society in Colorado 
Springs. 

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00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:59,200
Our mission is a Renaissance of 
the Christian imagination. 

371
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:03,300
We exist to help Christians, 
remember who they are to 

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00:24:03,300 --> 00:24:07,100
cultivate a deep awareness of 
their relationship to the great 

373
00:24:07,100 --> 00:24:11,600
story and to bring that 
awareness home to their families

374
00:24:11,900 --> 00:24:16,200
and churches to find out more 
about us or to become a patron, 

375
00:24:16,500 --> 00:24:20,500
please visit Visit and sell them
Society dot-org. 

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00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:19,200
Thanks for listening. 
Visit and sell them Society 

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00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,000
dot-org. 
Thanks for listening.