mu-pàd-da . . .

Some of you may be wondering about the name of my blog, mu-pàd-da. What does it mean? Why did I choose it?

It's a word based off a Sumerian verb. Literally, it can be analyzed as having the connotation "called by name." Generally, pàd represents "to choose; to call; to find." MU, the word commonly representing "name," is something of an historical agent attached to the verb pàd to form a sort of "compound" verb (see PSD article on pad3) which may or may not retain the "literal meaning." This combination is found in many royal inscriptions (e.g., Amar-Sin, chosen [mu-pàd-da] by Enlil in Nippur . . .)

Someone once asked me if I intended something theological here. Sorry, not really. Although I can certainly see how a biblically minded person can see traces of such in this designation, that was not my intent.

I went with this for a couple of reasons:

1) I liked it. I ran across it a few times in my Sumerian readings and am arrogant enough to adopt a royal epithet as my own (I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek) . . . of course, I would not claim to be chosen/nominated by Enlil, Marduk, Utu, Anu, Assur, Yahweh, El, or any other deity as some sort of special figure. I have a tendency to like epithets and I simply had an affinity to this one.

2) If you want a deeper reason: I do believe in some kind of purpose in life whether that be destiny, fate, kismet, election, whatever you want to call it. I think that each of us is given whatever talents we have in order to make a positive contribution to society. In that sense, we can be considered "chosen." In my case, I'm not quite sure what my purpose is yet. I know there's some reason to the course of my life . . . and some contribution I can make to society and/or the scholarly field. So I adopted mu-pàd-da as a reminder that there's a reason for the madness I put myself and my family through . . . because I know nothing else . . . because I know that I'm on this path for a purpose . . . if you want to call that "theological," then so be it.