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Saturday, 12 March 2005 08:31 pm
Well, I bear a slight resemblance to that "Big Nate" guy...
I've been assigned to pick a patron saint. My early inclinations were Thomas More, author of Utopia and protagonist of A Man for All Seasons, and Antony the Abbot, whom I had learned from a calendar to be a patron of animals. Well, More was unrealistic for me personally -- I'm not likely to be a lawyer, for one thing -- and Antony turns out to be specific to domestic animals. I decided to put some actual research into it.
St. Francis of Assisi, being into animals and ecology in general, is a prime candidate. My hangups have been (1) his popularity, (2) his unsaintly earlier history, and (3) his name meaning "Frenchman." None of these reasons looks very important anymore. I know from Harry Potter among others that the ultrapopular choices need not be "beneath" me. I shouldn't hold early history against people; I almost always got on good terms, if not friendship, with my enemies in grade school, and I suspect that I would have hated many of my college friends in third grade. And rejecting neutral name etymologies is just too petty for picking among saints. I'm too liberal to hate things for being French, like Italian names.
Nevertheless, I browsed a patron saint index for topics more particular to myself. Francis de Sales is the patron of writers, editors, and journalists, so I shouldn't be surprised my sponsor suggested him. Just for good measure, I looked up the saints associated with peacemaking. Among them is a Francis of Paola. You gotta be kidding me, I thought.
So it looks like one way or another, my Christian full name will be Stephen Brouse Francis Gilberg. Not an attractive combo in my view. Ah well, it's not like I'd be using it all the time. Won't show up on my driver's license.
St. Francis of Assisi, being into animals and ecology in general, is a prime candidate. My hangups have been (1) his popularity, (2) his unsaintly earlier history, and (3) his name meaning "Frenchman." None of these reasons looks very important anymore. I know from Harry Potter among others that the ultrapopular choices need not be "beneath" me. I shouldn't hold early history against people; I almost always got on good terms, if not friendship, with my enemies in grade school, and I suspect that I would have hated many of my college friends in third grade. And rejecting neutral name etymologies is just too petty for picking among saints. I'm too liberal to hate things for being French, like Italian names.
Nevertheless, I browsed a patron saint index for topics more particular to myself. Francis de Sales is the patron of writers, editors, and journalists, so I shouldn't be surprised my sponsor suggested him. Just for good measure, I looked up the saints associated with peacemaking. Among them is a Francis of Paola. You gotta be kidding me, I thought.
So it looks like one way or another, my Christian full name will be Stephen Brouse Francis Gilberg. Not an attractive combo in my view. Ah well, it's not like I'd be using it all the time. Won't show up on my driver's license.
