One of my favorite movies of all time, if not my all time favorite *grin*, is the epic drama Out of Africa. If you havent seen this movie run out right now and pick it up! It is amazing... a classic... a movie of such depth and sentiment that if you are not totally swept away by the heart wrenching romance of it all there simply must be something wrong with your head. (okay, not really, but honestly it's really good:)
Karen Blixen, (the lady who's autobiographical novel inspired the movie) is a danish baroness who immigrates to Africa after entering in to an arranged marriage of convenience. There, while her husband "goes safari" she is left alone to carve a hold out of the wilderness and build a coffee farm from the ground up. This movie is of a feminist nature, it is one woman's struggle to have a say in life, to gain control and hold it all together- the farm, her marriage, her employees in a wilderness which constantly threatens to reclaim "her" land. All of that fight comes to a simple and poetic end when Karen and her men, having fought to hold back a flooding river, finally let go and allow it to return to it's original course- through her crops and on to Mombasa. As she stands and watches the water run she says, in a dignified and deeply reverent tone (though thick with a questionable danish accent), "Let it go. This water lives in Mombasa anyways."
I am telling you this because that simple sentence is one I aught to have made in to my own little bracelet... instead of WWJD (what would Jesus do) I need to have LIG.TWLIMA. Let it go.... I've said before that I am a fretter. I pick my life to pieces and then continue picking away at it's tattered remnants. Letting go and letting what comes, come, is a philosophy I am trying so hard to adopt as my own. As bizarre as it may sound to some, my struggle to find just the right name for my new mare, the constant analyzing, lamenting, changing, the drama of it all is an old habit I fell in to easily and without much thought.
This evening I spoke with the breeders of my new mare. They are nice people, though not very talkative, however, the wife really opened up when I asked what my mare was like as a foal. She told me a little of the dam, siblings and how much they liked my filly when she hit the ground. They said that she was such a dainty thing, with fancy movement and a "look at me, I'm so pretty" attitude... they didnt take long to think up a name. With her regal presence there was no name for her but Princess- she certainly seemed to think she was one.
Princess is the name she came to me with... it is her name. I cant say how many times in the past few weeks that I've thought, "What a little princess" and I believe I even referred to her as being a princess on this blog. Oddly enough her last owner said that she never liked the name and planned on changing it but just could never think of anything that fit her better. Well, when I got off the phone with the breeders I thought of that line, "This water lives in Mombasa anyways" and I said in my head, complete with Merle's wannabe-danish accent, "this horse is named Princess anyways".
I accept it. Who am I to change it. Princess is her name....
*sigh*
I cant believe I own a horse named Princess.
C'est La Vie.
Sometimes, animals just have a name that's their name no matter how much we hate it. And, it just IS.
ReplyDeleteGlad you accepted it, even though you don't care for it. I'm sure Princess appreciates that.
LMAO join the club Chels!! My mare Cessa, well that's short for Princess (reg name Princess Spright) Her former owners called her Princess, and she knew her name. And like your girl she IS a Princess.
ReplyDeleteI have always disliked names like Princess, Duke, Queen, King, Prince etc. When I got Cessa I had the same disbelief "I own a Princess!" moment.
Through the years I've called her Princess, Cessa, Cess. But she always is and always will be "Princess"
I've always believed in leaving horse's names alone, particularly if they've had them for a long time. Noble was always Noble - it suited him. Promise was Promise. Norman was, well, Norman even though we hated the name at first. Lily came to us as Lulu, which I couldn't abide, so changed it just a little so it would have the same sound to her. Poor Maisie came to us with no name at all, but Maisie just came to me one day.
ReplyDeletePrincess will be fine if it's her real name.
LMAO too! It sucks when the name just IS, doesn't it? I'm stuck with Buffy because it just could not be changed. Growing up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can imagine my distaste for the name! But it stuck. I don't usually call her Buffy though. It's usually some mutation of it: Buffette, Bufferdo, Bufferdoodle, or, most often, just plain B. P is cute, you can always just use that. :)
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of a friend with a Princess, her and her daughter were gonna get hats with thier horses names on them, and we talked her out of it and she never even though of Princess and her daughters horse was Duchess, woulda been pretty funny to other people not knowing it was thier horses names!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I just "renamed" my colt for the umpteenth time. It must be going around.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you came to a good decision. I wish I was as sure of mine. LOL
Oohhh well. If Princess suits her.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's not one of those names a person usually picks willingly. But it's not that bad.
I ended up with a 'Beauty' along the way. My poor little bay mare. Nothing every came to any of our minds except that she was a little beauty...and that is unfortunately what stuck.
Just wanted to say I also count Out Of Africa among my favorite films, and in particular I remember that line well. You're right, it sums up many philosophies in just a few words. So I get where you're coming from, but wonder whether you shouldn't watch the movie again and see if a name might be lurking there for Princess. I do believe Karen's husband, Bror Blixen, did call her "Princeza" in one scene, though in a sarcastic manner.
ReplyDeleteWhat a challenge you're going through with names.
ReplyDeleteWhat you didn't like Luna? :)
Apache was named Sugar before she came here, but the lady said she didn't even use that name and just called her 'mare'. So I didn't worry about changing the name and Apache just came to me one day because she reminds me the Indian ponies owned by the Apaches.
My first horse was registered as Dakotas Baby Doll and tried to come up with a different name because she didn't act like a sweet little baby doll.....maybe more like that horror movie baby doll instead. lol!
I even tried calling her Dakota, but it just didn't feel right. So Baby Doll kept her name.
Maybe you could give your mare the barn name of Preena, a form of Princess and very feminine.
~Lisa