Names Create Inequality
Excerpt from What's In Your Name, Alfred J. Parker
If we agree with Abraham Lincoln's statement that "all men are created equal," what then happens in the lives of people that results in wealth for a few, sickness and poverty for many? What is the cause of the thousands of experiences and stimuli that shape our lives? Is their occurrence haphazard, or is there a reason for the pattern of our lives?
At birth we are as animals, and therefore equal for a brief period of our lives; we remain as such until we begin to respond to our given names. From this milestone onward our minds begin to develop, and therein lies the inequality of humanity.
Different names give us physical and mental characteristics. For how else can we differ from each other? As infants our bodies are the same, we have the same fears, loves, desires, and hates; but with the establishment of our names, personality and strong desires of likes and dislikes begin to manifest. All our happiness and sorrows, hopes and despairs, health and sicknesses, successes and failures are instilled in us by our individual names and nicknames. All that we are, and ever will be, is contained in the letters of our name.
It is the manifesting power of the name that had created the vast inequality. If our names are balanced and we follow the laws of nature, we are better able to reach our potentialities.