Reinhold Peiper Marxhausen

This is the first post of many! That being so, here is what Marxy has to say about his name:

"Words are information, not enlightenment.
We can't believe in words but language. The world needs to have labels on its objects, otherwise we cannot deal with it.

People have names, some even numbers, but the names we have have nothing to do with us as a person. Our nicknames may say more about us as a person. When our parents first looked at us at birth, no one said, 'He looks like a Paul or a Mary'. The name in many cases was arbitrary. In some cases we became our name.

I did not like my name as a child mostly because I never met anyone who had a name quite like it. Even today, my ears perk up when I hear the name Reinhold. Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen is a name almost too long to bear.

Seldom did I identify what the 'P' stood for in my middle name. If I was really pushed, I would say it was Peter.

Reinhold Pieper was a professor my father had at the seminary and I inherited a bronze plaque with his image.

At the age of 25 while attending Valpo University, my roommates discovered my full name and proceeded to laugh alot and make fun of it. They called me 'Peeps'. Of course it was embarrassing at first--then it became interesting. I had an interesting name. No one had a name like Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen. It was all mine. Maybe someday I would be able to live up to it and be as interesting as my name. I like it. I proudly sign the whole name whenever I can."

-Found written on a piece of paper in a stack of notes in the archive.

Pictures of his work to come soon!

- Amber Konz