To Continued Well Being and Digestion
I had a type of drink today which I had never drank before.
I was browsing a set of prompt-service restaurants in a circle, deciding between them, when the man serving food behind one of the counters greeted me. I returned the greeting and stepped forward, the man's friendliness deciding the outcome of my supper for me. What a marketing technique, I thought.
I ordered my dinner, a falafel plate side-dished with various foods I could not identify, but which I could recall having eaten and not suffered an allergic reaction to, so I went to the refrigeration shelves to see what I could purchase to counteract the pound of sodium I was about to consume.
In ancient China, a common method of suicide was to eat a pound of salt. My eyes drifted across the rows of glass bottles and settled on one whose label amused me greatly. Maccaw brand Exotic Fruits and Fibres, for better digestion and well being. Presuming that one's digestion and well being can never be too good, I purchased the drink. And it was the most delicious liquid which has ever graced my taste buds.
Maccaw Exotic Fruits and Fibres drink,
I've never tasted such a thing, I think,
Electrifying senses all, and seeing
To my good digestion and well being.
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The year I was born, I was given the ninth most common first name for that year. It's also my father's first name, which is likely where my parents took it from to give it to me. I am not a junior or a second, as I have two middle names, and my father has none.
My father must have liked his name well enough, otherwise he would not have bestowed it upon me. Do I like it? Not enough for me to use it to make a third consecutive one of us. It's rather common, and I'd prefer something a bit more interesting as well, if not match my interesting personality, at least give the illusion of a match, like Spyridon. As it is, I hardly think to type out Moose in place of my name here.
Teresa: No. A resounding no.
Moose: But-
Teresa: It sounds like a Pokémon.
Moose: It's not - Saint Spyridon was a sheep farmer who became the bishop of Tremithus in the 4th century.
Teresa: Saintly sheep farmers, that's terrific.
Moose: I thought so, glad you agree.
If I were named Spyridon, I would know the first thing people would notice about me upon meeting me. The initial response I would elicit would unwaveringly be, 'Wow, that fellow's name is Spyridon'. Like the enormously tall fellow in my organic chemistry lab.
Moose: What is it like, always knowing the first thing everyone notices about you?
Jonathan: What do you mean?
I took a step toward him and made a point of craning my neck upwards to look him in the eyes from my six foot and most of one inch stature.
Jonathan: Oh. It was cool at first, when I was young, then it became annoying, and now I simply don't pay it any attention anymore.
So Spyridon may very well have lost its interest with me by now. It's a shame, as I would most certainly appreciate it if I were to change my name to it at this point. But such a thing would be open to misconstruction especially in the eyes of my parents, not to mention the great ordeal of getting everyone to call me Spyro or perhaps Don from a certain point forward. To what advantage would it be for me to do such a thing, would be the question. And the answer would be mostly nothing but the novelty.
And though I might enjoy it at first, there is a great possibility I would not at all, given a length of time. Enforcing that removes my control of the first impression I give. A first impression should not be all so important, as anyone who truly cares to acquaint themselves with me would give me more chance than a chortling at my name. Yet I still feel a desire to give a good first impression.
It's why I shower more often than I could get away with. I'll admit that, until about a month ago, I did not pay particular attention to this facet of my life this year. So I was not the cleanest of persons, so what? That's what the university life is about, isn't it? It was not often that people came within close proximity of me, and on such occasions I would be sure to fix this. It was perhaps the dramatic dropoff in the number of people I would interact with which discouraged my hygenics to start with. Last year in high school I would walk through halls holding two thousand students five days per week for seven or more hours. I talked to people in those hallways, I interacted with those people during classes, and I made terrible puns under my breath to my classmates during those classes even when we weren't supposed to be engaging in any sort of interaction. Here, you walk down the street, enter the building, sit down for class, not say a word the entire duration of the class, and leave. Then everyone is back out on the street - no building encasing anyone in and forcing them to interact with me.
Near the beginning of the year, I tried making my subtle commentaries on the class to those sitting around me. But I was just a distraction. In one instance, a person's cellular telephone began ringing, and I announced this very superfluously and perhaps a bit too loudly. Sixty head turned to see where the voice came from, and I lowered my head, mortified at the silence that followed. The class was perhaps the most important thing in those students' lives, and I was taking away from that. My classes are not the most important thing in my life. I don't know what the most important things in my life are, though I'm inclined to believe that my writing of prose and music, and the small group of friends which I have retained contact with since the last year rank rather highly on my list these days. I am going to school for chemistry and right now it is not the most important thing in my life - is this a sign that I will not see it through? No, I still believe that when I am using my education to change lives, that it when chemistry will be important to me. If I still believe that in three years remains to be seen.
When parents give their children names, is the usual intent to use a common name? Is that how the common names become common names and usually stay as such for a good number of years? How is it that female names have evolved a great deal more than male names? A possible answer to that is that the majority of Biblical names are male, and those have been prevalent since, well, Biblical times. On the other side of things, how a name like Madison becomes one of the most common female first names is beyond me. Using the name Madison seems to me like asking for the child to be prematurely bratty and rebellious.
There's a delicate balance between a name being uncommon and making a childhood insufferable and a name making a child one of a hundred million others and being just one of the crowd. I'd like to simply say the whole issue is hardly that important and think about more important things. But undoubtedly I will dwell on the topic periodically for the next several years, until it becomes a relevant issue in my life at which point I relegate the problem to someone else.