I’ve never felt very connected to my name. I’ve had so many nicknames, that my actual name is something I don’t feel is precious. I actually wait to see how long it takes people to start shortening my first name. Everyone does. Rarely does anyone use my full first name unless I’m in a business meeting, or I’m in trouble. I have close friends that can’t pronounce my last name correctly. I’ll never tell them, because I don’t connect to it in any sort of close way, so I don’t care. The only person I share a last name with that matters is my brother. None of the rest of my family has it.
However, I’m really glad I have an unusual name. Seriously. Both my first and last names are unusual…not so much so that people think I’m the child of a self involved Hollywood star that has no concern for the mockery of their child, but enough so that when people hear or see my name….no matter how long it’s been, they know it’s me.
Case in point. I keep this blog. I recently got a comment from someone I haven’t seen since I was in college. In high school, we were good friends. His house was the first I had ever seen a Mork style egg chair in. He introduced me to a ton of music. We went to the beach…a lot. His was the first family I ever saw have a vacation itinerary written up for travel. I think of it now every time I travel, and make no plans…
He was a couple grades above me, and left for college. We kept in touch, but the last time we saw each other was one day when I was driving with some friends down the Haight in SF, and he was wandering down the street. I was looking out the passenger window, and yelled “STOP!!!”
Jumping out, I ran up to him, and we gave each other huge hugs. Talked for a couple of minutes, but I had to jump back in the car as we were headed to a theater performance.
And we haven’t talked since. Not for any reason except losing touch. Life. You know.
And then, a month ago…he saw my name on a film I did. And looked me up. And apparently found this blog.
My heart warmed. And it was because of my name.
So, I guess I need to learn to connect to my name. Not because of what it has meant, but because of what it means now. There’s a calculator online that will tell you how many people in the world have your name combination. For my first and last name, the answer was 1. In the world, just me. The only one.
So if you want to find me, I guess all you have to do is look. It’s only me out here.
And Mike…I’m so glad you got in touch.
Awesome post! Yeah, the whole internet can be a double edged sword in more ways than one. On the one hand it can be awesome to connect with friends you haven’t seen in ages and check out their digital footprints online to see where they’ve been and what they’ve been up too. On the other hand, it can be kind of creepy when random people from your past use the internet like a bounty hunter to track you down and NOT LET GO. It cuts both ways so I’m really glad to see that I fell into the heart warming category.
I’ll have to send you some music. I’m really into Yelle (Awesome French electro pop) and one of my all-time favorite bands, Faith No More, just recently got back together and did some amazing shows. For their last encore in San Francisco they brought out their old singer, Chuck Mosley, to do some songs and then Mike Patton and Chuck Mosley did “Introduce Yourself” together. It was a really unique moment, like imagine if your parents divorced on really bad terms and then 20 some years later you’re at a family wedding and you see the both of them and they’re shit-faced drunk and bouncing with each other on the dance floor like they were the Beastie Boys. Sometimes life will surprise you.