The greatest trick ever played on humans was convincing them that they are the labels.

Somewhere along the way the name became mistaken for the thing it was only ever pointing at. We collect labels the way a basket collects paper tags — student, skeptic, success, failure — and slowly we begin to believe the tags are the cargo rather than the wrapping. But peel one off and nothing underneath is diminished; the labels were always borrowed, never woven in. What stays when the naming stops is the same awareness that was doing the naming all along. If you set the whole basket down for a moment, who is left holding it?