What's in a name

Letting go of things that don't suit us

When I started writing on Substack, I was excited to have a place where I didn’t need to be anything in particular. I’m not trying to market my psychotherapy here, or teach a particular set of Buddhist ideas, or convert you to activism…

I wanted a place where I could write without an agenda. When I first set this up I used my own name for the name of the newsletter: Kaspa Thompson. It’s unique enough to avoid any confusion, and would be the common factor in whatever I was writing.

It quickly became clear that no one else’s Substack publication was named after themselves, and that Substack already showed my name underneath the title of the newsletter wherever it’s recommended. Mine was showing up as Kaspa Thompson, Kaspa Thompson, and looked out of place amongst the other publications.

“What could I call it?”, I wondered.

A name floated across my consciousness: Human Animal. I felt pleased and excited.

Generated by Dall-E

I was excited by the phrase Human Animal because it undermined the idea that humans are somehow above the rest of the natural world. It also connected me with my own sense of wildness, and with my body as well as my mind. It reminded me of how interconnected I am with all living and non-living things. It suggested that there was something of value in being connected to and remembering those things.

I was excited because it reminded me of the podcast I that I had recorded two series of a few years ago: Rainforest Mind.

I created a header for the emails and the web version of this newsletter with that title, and then I didn’t think much more about it. I wrote one piece, and another, and another.

A while back I sorted out my wardrobe using the famous/infamous Konmari method. You put all of your clothes into a heap somewhere, take them one by one and ask if they spark joy. If they do, they stay. If they don’t, they go (unless they are essential for some other reason, like a uniform).

I found it a very powerful process. I took the invitation to notice the spark of joy very seriously. I let my mind settle and become quiet before I started the process, so that I could pay close attention to my own inner state.

Some items of clothing that didn’t spark joy surprised me, but with more reflection it made sense. They were reflecting an older version of myself, and perhaps without realising it, I wasn’t that person any more. Into the ‘donate to charity shop’ pile they went.

Was the same thing going on with the newsletter title, I wondered? Human Animal would have made a great alternative name for the Rainforest Mind podcast. When I was recording those episodes, I was training in Wild Therapy, and thinking a lot about my place in the world as a human animal.

Was I still the same person that was recording those episodes?

Of course not. Like looking back through old photographs of ourselves, when there is always some continuity and some difference, I was somewhat the same and somewhat different.

I looked back across what I had actually written for this newsletter. Some of those Human Animal themes were present there, but they were more in the background than the foreground. Maybe that represented a kind of integration. Just like when we first learn to drive we consciously think about each action, but in time those actions become second nature and our conscious thoughts can turn to other places, like holding a conversation with a passenger.

If those things were in the background, what was in front? I noticed one common thread: the deep acceptance of all the many parts of myself, and an implicit invitation for others to practice that same kind of acceptance. I guess that may be part of what it means to be a human animal, but that name didn’t feel like quite the right fit.

A few words stayed with me from the haiku I quoted at the end of I couldn’t write anything: “Just as You Are.” That felt right.

Sometimes I will write about wildness, and human animals, but I will always be writing from a place that welcomes the whole of me (and of you). Welcome to Just As You Are.

“Just As You Are’” also happens to be the name of a book Satya and I are slowly revising at the moment. I’ll let you know how that’s going sometime. In the meantime, I wonder what you might be holding on to, that no longer fits the current version of yourself?