A MAN driving peacefully along a country road slowed down for the approaching sharp bend ahead. As he did, an old woman came dangerously swerving around the bend. She stuck her head out the window and screamed at him “fat pig”. The normally calm man screamed back at her “old cow” and thought to himself “how dare she scream fat pig’ at me.” And when he drove around the corner, he wrote off his car when he drove straight into the fattest pig he had ever seen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Names are funny things. When my brother Anthony was playing rugby union every single player without exception had a nickname. Not unusual. However, Anthony felt quite uncomfortable with this when one rugby player who was far from good looking and was in fact hideous, was nicknamed at the club “Freak”.
My brother said he never felt comfortable calling this clearly very ugly man “Freak” and so was relieved to hear a couple of the other players refer to Freak as “Mon”. After calling him “Mon” for a few weeks Anthony asked him back at the pub one night “I heard some of the boys call you Mon. Is that short for something?”
The man replied “Yeah. It’s short for ‘Monster’.” It seems foot-in-mouth disease runs in my family.
I have known people who hated any form of nicknames, in one case, even the shortening of names, believing nicknames come from the name “Old Nick” which is a nickname for the devil. Hmm. I have had nicknames all my life. I once counted up 22 different nicknames I had at school of which most I liked and only a couple I hated. I was able to count up 16 different nicknames I have had since then which has had me musing on the fact that most people in my life, even in my family, have called me something other than “Brendan”. I guess for we priests our favourite nickname should be “Father”. In a lot of ways it keeps priests focused on what we are supposed to be as a priest.
I guess a lot of people would not consider “Father” a nickname but a title, but I see it as a term of endearment.
What’s in a name? Apparently a lot. When people are angry with you and they’re not into bruising, what do they do? They often call you a name.
It’s like my mother always told me “If you can’t say something nice about someone, call them a fool.”
Only joking Mum.
In the positive direction, are not nicknames or abbreviating or lengthening a person’s name a sign of affection?
In the Old Testament God called Abram “Abraham” and his wife Sarai “Sarah”. In the New Testament Jesus called Simon “Peter” and rather humorously called John and James “Sons of Thunder” for wanting to call down fire upon some people who would not accept Jesus.
Until Jesus came, we only ever knew God by God’s nicknames. Only Moses dared to ask God what God’s name was and God wouldn’t tell him but said “I am who I am” so the Hebrews started calling God “I AM”.
We say “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me” but that is nonsense.
You can seriously damage a child and even an adult with abusive nicknames.
The names we call people by can have a tremendous influence on their self-esteem and our relationship with them, so be careful how you use them. If you can’t see that, then you must be a real Wally …. My apologies to Wally Lewis, Where’s Wally and all other Wallies.
