Called
By Name
Only a few days ago
I made a new friend named Abbey. Her age is seven years. I remember
Abbey when she was a baby but she cannot remember me from that
earlier time. It so happened that she said to me on seeing me, “As
soon as I heard your name I thought you were famous.” “Really?”
I replied. Feeling a bit shaken by her proclamation of my fame I
failed to ask her what she was told was my name. Next day, we were
out for a walk to a store together and she brought up the subject
again and again. I wondered what she meant. Then she said so
brightly, “Johnny Whooperswan, I was sure you were very famous when
I first heard your name.” She repeated my name several times in a
hurry and each time it rang with joy from her young, little heart. I
cannot say how marvelous it made me feel. Then she told me, “I am
going to tell all my friends I met Johnny Whooperswan and he is very
famous”, and laughed out loud.
Now she calls Johnny
Whooperswan whenever she decides to call me. And
the manner in which it flows from that child is music. And the best
part, the reason I want to tell this story, is that I understand from
the sounds in my ear when she does that Abbey does not mean by
“famous” what definition is locked in my head of words.
The very name to her has a real magic quality I feel when she says
it. It is definitely related to music. And it makes me feel so very
special. And it brings up in me a memory of a time when I myself was
most strongly drawn to a sound that I could rely on to open up a door
to a special place where something good lives. Somehow that search is
innate to humans.
Then I heard, via
Netflix, Joseph Campbell, an expert in myths from all around the
Earth introduce one from India that ends up by telling that all
people are in some way titled as special and we are countless in
number and we arise from the belly of Vishnu with a bag of
thunderbolts to serve awhile but whenever we get to feeling arrogant
about it we become as one more tiny ant. In the midst of the wonder
of my name spoken by Abbey with such definite purpose I like the myth
very much indeed and accept its challenge for me. I been noticed.
But I understand I am just an ordinary man living an ordinary life
which happens to be miraculous!
