Friday, October 10, 2025

This is the ninety-third installment of West Wind, your weekly drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season. I realized after posting the previous West Wind that there was a great joke about it being the ninety-second post, but it might take longer than ninety seconds to read. Oh well, better to laugh late than not at all, right?

Wow, is it Friday already? Clearly, because we’re here! It’s also Frontier Friday, because that’s a fun thing to do.

Recently I watched the 2002 wire action movie Hero, wherein the title character played by Jet Li claims that he has no name, and is referred to in the credits and subtitles as “Nameless.” This is certainly a heroic device, a person who acts solely on their deeds and actions rather than relying on the recognition of their name. But then I realized that the Nameless Hero is actually a paradox.

In Hero, one character is named Broken Sword, and he fights with a… broken sword. Whatever he was named at birth, he’s chosen that self-descriptive title for himself. Jet Li’s Nameless character is called “Master Nameless” by several people, which then becomes his name. He’s no longer nameless, his name is now Nameless.

So, it isn’t really possible to not have a name. Even if you choose to abandon the one you were given, someone else will give you another. Even if it’s the Man With No Name…

Enjoy the weekend, and I’ll be back next week with more fun!