names

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Jennifer recently wrote a comment in reply to the "Happy May 16th !" post from last week.  It is a great conversation to open up, especially in connection with this week's page of "Identity."  In her 5/25 comment she writes:

So, in this post, you have used many namings of both I and you... I like that, because it allows a fluidity to live in me with the nomen of J.

I was feeling a bit overused as J., starting to have a sense in myself that perhaps it is more like a signature (which is how I often use it) versus a calling name - though I do like it also... thus, please hear my jabble that i am feeling slightly confused in continuing to be called hear J. all the time

thanks,
~J~

I wrote a comment back to her today and I would like to share again here:

I hear you, here dear Jennifer Hemphill Gould, my cherished friend.  Strangely enough, I am quite unfamiliar with calling you by your name, Jennifer.  I, as with many of our ol' homies from school, have relished calling you by your incredible and wonderful maiden name of Hemphill, for practically as long as ZBOOK has walked this earth.  I have a long standing relationship and thus a heartfelt affection for your maiden name, which is as much your name to me as my name of cec is to you.  As we began to embark on a road of public arena with ZBOOK 4EVER, I tried out a route where I would call you by how you chose to identify yourself in here: J.   I hear you that, rather than a name, it is a signature.  Okay love.  My jabble now is that it is your name of Hemphill that flows so organically from my lips and my pen and my fingers as I type.  I will however, if it is your wish, refer to you as Jennifer in our blogging (with dashes of Hemphill here and there when I just can't help it! :) .  Of course I am aware that Jennifer is in fact your name, given and chosen for the world to know you by!  And I love it because it's you.  And I also love your other birth name, which I have celebrated since we were young pups. I love you Hemphill.

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And so let it be known... my dear friend and sister to my heart, Jennifer, is lovingly known to me as Hemphill, the last name she had before she did wed, her maiden name, her nickname in our PSL circle of college buddies, and an exquisite name to boot.  Her name first is indeed Jennifer.  Hemphill, I do love how you use your complete and full name of Jennifer.  I know you are also Jen to some people (and at first to me), but Jennifer to most and that is actually quite lovely in the light of so many 'Jen's in our American lives.  The choice to primarily use your full 'Jennifer' re-roots the name in its elegance and integrity.  It does speak of you. You do wear it well.  

PS(L): Please do feel free to call me by any of my names in here!  You did call me ~supercec~ in your comment in reply to 5/10's post, which you signed ~Hemphill... :)!  Sweet.  Call me Ceci, Cec, supercec, super, 6, super6... or even Cece which is what has organically flown from your fingertips on hundreds of correspondences to me from you.  I am your cec-ster 4ever.

love,

cec

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