Each of the mini-essays I’m publishing for the month of June are part of a creative challenge to share joy during Pride. You can find out more in the link below. You can even participate, if you’d like!
1. Name
I used to hate my name. I got made fun of, I was the only Robin I knew for a long time, and it just never felt like it fit who I was. When I finally acknowledged myself as a trans person, I felt some envy when I saw others around me finding the names that fit who they were and made them shine. So I tried some other names out. I went to coffee shops and gave them a name I was playing with. They called it out when my drink was ready, and I knew the name wasn’t right. I did the same again when I went for a haircut. I booked it under a different name to see how it sounded. Similar problem—they called me, and… I just knew that name wasn’t me. And then one day when I was talking to a friend, they said in a tone of frustration, “It would be so much easier for me if you’d changed your name and pronouns at the same time. I don’t know how to separate who you were then from who you are now.” And right then, in that specific moment, I realized that they were right (if a tad misguided). I wasn’t really changing myself at all. I didn’t need to become anything new or different. I was finally just getting to be me. And so I chose to keep my name. I chose to be Robin for the first time in my life, and I knew it fit me in a way it never had before.
Your trans friend,
Robin
When I came out publicly I just knew my name was Emily. It wasn't something I thought about, somehow I just knew it and it still feels right even now, 20 years later. At almost 81 years old. It is just one small part of my happy world.
Language. Bunch of words, and history. Excellent. Now, when I speak - that is to say, when those folks who can hear and are genuinely listening, will hear a sound pass through my lips. I say don't adjust your "ear set" because the sounds you hear are the sounds of my version of Canadian English. I'm not doing too badly. I survived to my 62nd year, which I will mark in 6 days. There is still a lot to do. What planet do we live on? Right. Always LOTS to do. Ok. One day and step at a time.
Robin's creative prose inspired the above for reasons that almost slip my mind when I pause to wonder why I am offering all this verbiage. This happens to my mind at times. Some of us creative folks are "mad scientists," and what you see, friendly reader, are the results.
Oh, ok, got it - Language. Bunch of words, and history. Excellent. We are words, and we are history. Grammar needs improvement. So does Grammarly, but that is another story for another time, or not.
Language. Chewing gum for the mind[?] What is your flavour? Mine is the flavour of Life.
Of course, our current society will throw in brands of politics in this mix of life.
Members of our society, depending on who is walking by and notices me sitting over there, will notice a Gay man. That is one of many labels society presses on me, if they were expressing their political viewpoints with those yellow, sticky notes. Ok.
Floating my imagination for a few moments more: I press one label on everyone I notice walking by me; a label based on a scientific method of observation; that label lists the same words all the time: this biological form is a human being. Sure. I know, not a climactic ending on that previous sentence.
Sometimes, words posted on social media platforms present dog-eared, wrinkled facts?
Robin, carrying around, proudly, many of those yellow sticky notes, philosophically, and politically, in my manner of speaking - but we are friends. Thanks to sharing familiar language of words, some comparable history, and, of course, the connectivity of the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web: Whoa. There is a "mind-blower" of technology we all take for granted.
Happy Pride, Everyone! What is Pride? I figure many folks ask this question often, during Pride Month or any time.
I offer this: Pride is about ALL human beings who strive to live authentically. Living authentically is sharing your energy with everyone in such a way as to encourage every person we meet to continue thriving in a society that offers a peculiar maze of shifting whatever.
I know, I know that previous sentence ended with a word which wasn't climactic. You know how it is on social media sometimes.
Thank you, Robin, one of my Trans Friends, and all the strangers of the Transgender Community; in my book of life, strangers are friends I haven't met yet.
Yep, you have read that idea about strangers somewhere before.
Nothing new offered above.
Please stay as happy, safe, and authentic as you can be. The world will thrive as a safe place to live for everyone one day soon.
Thanks for the invitation to post thoughts online, Robin. I always look forward to your creative prose.
Thanks, sincerely, to all our visitors for your time reading long post here.
In the meantime, I offer a lot of Love to Everyone from London, Ontario, Canada.