What are we known by?

I believe in a long prolonged derangement of the senses to attain the unknown... Although I live in the subconscious, our pale reason hides the infinite from us.

-Jim Morrison

I was suddenly thinking to myself…. Each one of us goes by a certain name right?After a certain point in time or rather after being reasonably acquainted with a certain person we couldn’t possibly know/identify through any other way. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, if I changed my name tomorrow no one I know would call me by it but someone I met for the first time wouldn’t have a choice. So essentially some people would consider their names only as a form of identification but some people feel it’s a part of who they are.

Yes, I personally believe that our names stick/stay with us for, well… probably a lifetime. Now you go watch a movie. A movie played by a certain bunch of actors. All of these actors have their own individualistic names, yet we identify them for what ever character they choose to play and the best part is, its quite aptly suited. Why do we do this? Well yeah, you’re watching a movie after all. It’s not real. What ever said and done, there’s a director behind a camera shouting ”action” to a bunch of people who already have their own individualistic names portraying a certain character they believe they’re doing justice to. I don’t believe I’m the kind of person to debate this sort of thing. It is the very definition of entertainment to us and the people who entertain us go more than just by their names. But my point is, if you knew this person on a personal level playing a character in a certain movie, watching him or her would definitely make for interesting viewing. The surviving members of "The Doors" claim that Val Kilmer did such a good job playing Jim Morrison and singing as Jim Morrison that they could not distinguish his voice from the real Morrison's. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like for those guys to see people portray them and Kilmer portray Morrison’s life in a 2-hour feature film.

Tomorrow I meet a bunch of people I’ve never seen in my life. They ask me my name. I say ‘ScarS’. Far fetched? Definitely. But they still don’t have a clue of what I go by and will most definitely buy it. Well, at least to a certain extent. So how much do our names play in terms of defining whom we are? Is it something we define on a personal level or something we rely on others to make individualistic impressions of? I guess your reputation must therefore precede you.

So is my name the equivalent to me like how we say table or chair? Or is it something I rely on myself to feel on a personal level? Some people like their names and some people are trying really hard to change them and well half the time I'm sitting in a circular room looking for a corner.

I say it doesn’t matter what you go by, but rather how you go by.