If you don’t like the name your child has, because you think it might be causing her to get sick, then by all means change the name. A westerner would easily see that as superficial, superstitious or even unfounded as they perceive the story through skeptical eyes. However, in traditional religion and animistic worldviews, this practice is quite common.
We need to remember we do not perceive all areas and often miss variables. If our child is sick, we take them to the doctor to get a cure. People from traditional religions might take them to the doctor, like in Thailand, but will also visit the local shaman or witch doctor, or in our case, monk.
Last night, Christina and I ate dinner with one of my teen students and her mom, enjoying the final night of buy one-get-one free pizza (the place was packed out as everyone came to the mall to spend their pay check they receive at the end of each month and get one last free pizza). I asked my student’s mom why she named her daughter what she did, which means smart and clever.
The mother then went into a story of how that wasn’t the first name she chose for her daughter. My student was born early in the morning on a Sunday, so her first name meant rising dawn. As a baby, the girl was in and out of the hospital with one illness after another. The doctors could not find a reason for her reoccurring illnesses so they just blamed it on being an infant. The mother was at her wit’s end. She needed more answers, so she took her baby to a special temple outside of Bangkok and asked the monk what might be afflicting her daughter. She didn’t say why she chose this temple, but I assume it is because of its reputation for helping people with this kind of problem. The monk probed the mother with some questions about the girl’s name, when she was born (time and day) and so on. Since she was born on a Sunday, which is symbolized by the color red, and early in the morning that meant she was a strong girl, very strong, the monk said. He went on to explain that her given name was not suitable for her and provided several new options. The mother chose the one that meant smart and clever, and I’ll add has a beautiful ring to it.
Her mother concluded the story by saying, her daughter never got sick again after that. She clarified that meant sick in the hospital like she had been. One of the key attributes to these worldviews is an approach of if it works, it must be true.
ASK THE BLIND PASTOR 