One of my favorite things in my possession these days is a deck of cards containing psychiatric disorders on them -- each one has the name of the disorder on the front, explanation on the back. While some people love medical books (I enjoy these too), I find myself turning to the DSM for fun. I diagnose myself and friends with various disorders of the mind. Surpassing my love of astrology, psychiatric disease thrills me. Nothing pleases me more than when a new disorder makes its way into the DSM. The latest -- complicated grieving disorder, a condition that asserts itself when there are too many deaths at one time for a person to process or when mourning becomes interrupted by another crisis. I have seen this for years! Now it has a name.
Naming something is crucial, I think. The nameless terrifies far more than that which lends itself to narrative. If I can tell myself a story, I feel a bit better, no matter how hard the road. Someone once asked me if I was raised in a seminary since I have a Bible verse for all situations. Most recently Jesus wept has come in handy, although I have recently employed Today we will be in paradise (Jesus to the thief on the cross), and Like a dog returneth to its own vomit, a fool to his folly. (probably the most frequently used in my arsenal). My own name means "Who is like God?" and my middle name means bitter. It's a lot to process. I've never really liked it, always wishing for something, well, cooler. But it's my name, you see, and that's got to be enough.
For my commenters -- like or dislike your name? Meanings?
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach, is Joy."
Fra Giovanni
Cocktail Hour
Mojito video to follow soon!
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Tuesday! My deepest condolences to the anonymous commenter whose mother died yesterday. In response to your comment, my mother has been dead for a long time and yet she still has a deep impact on my life. I believe I write about her to understand myself.
5 comments:
Our girl's name means Blessed Light Descending. I love that!
Mine means Leader of Those Who Fill Blessed Pots--or something like that. Not quite the same, ya know? xoxo
A little girl is like a melody. Did you see Grouchy's lovely eye peeking out from behind Michelle's beautiful hair?
Tin Cup
The DSM can be quite entertaining. AS for my name, Gramlich means Grief and Sorrow and I love that.
Asshole buttmunch jerk fool...my names are all pretty much self explanatory and they mean different things depending on whose mouth they are coming out of. Nothing id better than being called from across the room by my name from a person ho uses it with love.
Heff: I have just gone out of my mind...not out of this world. Thanks for noticing though.
I did a post about this a while back (as relates to my own name, anyway.)
Names are convenient, but they rarely portray all of the possibilities of the thing they're representing. They're good and bad.
Post a Comment