Tonight I came home from a night out with my most inspirational Boss Ass Bitch of a friend to plop myself in front of the computer and of course check my facebook. As usual, there was something in the “trending” section which caught my eye.
What I found was a headline that said the “Torch” building had become engulfed in flames in Dubai. This is actually one of the tallest residential buildings in the entire world, thankfully the news reports say the building was evacuated safely, but there is A LOT OF FIRE. Now, here’s the thing, this isn’t the first time that this building has well… become an actual “Torch”. This is the second time in three years!
While I do not intend to make light of a tragedy, I do have to wonder why they chose to name this building “Torch”, and I also wonder why they kept the name after it had already experienced such a spectacular fire in which it lived up to its name.
There is a long tradition of people being ‘superstitious’ about giving people and things ‘tainted’ names (you don’t often hear of people naming their children Goliath, Judas, Satan, Lucifer etc). This superstition isn’t limited to biblical names, I myself was given a name that was immediately and vehemently vetoed by my grandmother because of her experiences as a school teacher trying to teach girls with that name who were “always a problem” (NO GRANDDAUGHTER OF MINE WILL BE NAMED JENNIFER!!!).
If you aren’t convinced of a name creating some sort of connection to a future happenstance I do bring the following little-known fact to you: The Titanic got its name from a ship in a fictional story. That ship was the largest ship in the world and was dubbed to be unsinkable, in the story the ship was named the Titan (hence TitanIC, ie. like the Titan). This is all good and well, except for the fact that in the story, this unsinkable ship SINKS! (if you haven’t watched the movie Titanic with Kate and Leo you should, it is an epic movie, but **SPOILER ALERT*** THE TITANIC SINKS TOO!!!).
Did the choice of name cause the sinking? Was it wise to name something after a tragedy? Would you buy a car called the “James Dean”? Would you fly an airline called “Alive Airlines”? How about a restaurant called “Sweeney Todd’s Emporium”?
Are superstitions kind of like stereotypes… (there is usually some form of truth hidden in there or they wouldn’t be so widely accepted)?
Maybe? Maybe not? But why take the risk?!
~Elena <3