Yesterday while in Budapest we visited the Shoes on the Danube memorial. For me, this was the most emotional of the memorials we have visited. To look at the shoes, the boots, the little toddler shoes and thinking about the feet that were wearing those shoes just made it so real.
The emotion was also intensified as our group read aloud together “Each of Us Has a Name” a poem by Jewish poet Zelda. It was during this reading that the emotion became overwhelming for me as I said the last few lines with tears streaming down my cheeks. “Each of Us Has a Name” also has significance to me as during our teacher in-service week at the beginning of this school year I used it as the last gathering with all of our faculty to remind them that each student has a name, they are unique individuals with their own personalities, strengths, challenges and identities. I also reminded teachers that they too, each have a name. They have a name that will be remembered by students, by parents, and by their colleagues. As a teacher, is their name going to be remembered by a student as a class they dreaded going too? That the very thought of walking into that classroom causes a pit in the bottoms of their stomach? Or are they leaving the importance of their name as a teacher who cared, was patient, was a teacher that believed and inspired them?
As I was working with the Lauder high school students today, “Each of Us Has a Name”once again resonated with me. The students and I engaged in a discussion about personal identity, not only what identity is but what different aspects are involved in creating and molding our identity. Even though we had two Hanna’s and two Anna’s in the class, their name is uniquely theirs and their identity is theirs. We discussed strengths, adversity, passion, culture, religion, morals, values and beliefs and how they work to shape our identity. As students shared their thoughts and feelings with the group, it again brought me back to “Each of Us Has a Name.” Each child comes to our classroom with a story, a background, a history, an identity. Each child brings with them sadness and success, fortune and failure, trauma and tears. One student brought with them to my class their name and their grieving soul where she hoped “the spirit can fly away and live again.” Or like the leaves of an overgrown weeping willow tree, a student brought a heart that was heavy in the belief that “you get this life because you are strong enough to live it.” But what an honor I had, that it was me who got to hear their story, their identity, their background, and their name. That I was the recipient of helping them process their emotion, their instability, their voice. L’chol Ish Yesh Shem. Each of us has a name.
Each of Us Has a Name- Zelda
Each of us has a name given by God and given by our parents
Each of us has a name given by our stature and our smile and given by what we wear
Each of us has a name given by the mountains and given by our walls
Each of us has a name given by the stars and given by our neighbors
Each of us has a name given by our sins and given by our longing
Each of us has a name given by our enemies and given by our love
Each of us has a name given by our celebrations and given by our work
Each of us has a name given by the seasons and given by our blindness
Each of us has a name given by the sea and given by our death.
