Joseph's firstborn son is named Manasseh, because 'God has made me forget my suffering.' Joseph's had a reversal of fortune - he's risen from slave to prime minister. The past is behind him.
But I don't think this means Joseph forgot in a complete sense. The name is an act of will - a decision to center the goodness that followed, not to stay trapped in the trauma.
I named my daughter after overcoming something too - it was my way of saying I'm going to move forward, I'm going to build something new. Forgetting doesn't mean the trauma didn't happen. It means choosing not to organize your entire life around it.
That's harder than it sounds. Manasseh as a name is an act of bravery.
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