Driving home with the kids today, we started naming each other, the cousins riffing on the nicknames I have for my daughters. Affectionately, the kids named each member of our family, all after foods.

What’s in a name? More than a word, these names are ways to possess each other, lovingly lay claim. Like a lasso, this language loops over a beloved: Mine. Willingly accepted, the nickname claims: yours.

The stars we are given. The constellations we make. That is to say, stars exist in the cosmos, but constellations are the imaginary lines we draw between them, the readings we give the sky, the stories we tell.

– Rebecca Solnit