sunburnt wheatgrass

Perhaps it’s because my only brother is eight years older and I often felt lonely, or that I had an active imagination as a child and got tired of creating pretend friends, or it grew from the innate need for companionship or the sense of power that came out of giving something an identity, but I’ve always named inanimate objects. And I’ve always talked to them. I probably shouldn’t write about it in past tense as if I’ve grown out of it.

It’s one of those things a person can hide rather well in singledom, although all my roommates grew used to me talking my papers out loud as I typed them, but it’s much harder after marriage. I remember one night Yucan came back from somewhere to hear and find me talking to my socks as I was pairing them and putting them away. But the vows were already said and he was stuck. I even got him to name things in our house with me although in the seven years we lived at our old house we never decided on a name for our house. He always said he’d think about it, or was thinking about it, but as I look back I’m beginning to detect something hidden in those statements.

Today as I packed the kids in the car for Enna’s little gym class a friend came over for a staff meeting at our house. Somehow we got to talking about cars and she told Enna her car’s name. Excitedly Enna asked what our car’s name was and I told her we hadn’t found one that we like yet. So she thought about it and said she wanted to name it “Rogue.” She’s never watched a movie before and has no idea about X-men, but it was a definitive decision. I asked her how she spelled it since the “r” sounds like a half “w” – half “r” sound, and she quickly answered, “R-O-E-I-N-M-G.” At least she got the consonant sounds. Then she wanted to name all the cars parked across from our garage. She named one “Took” pronounced with the “oo” sound in “boo,” and another one “keek.”

If you need help naming something Enna will gladly offer her services and growing talent that I will oh-so-nuture.