Names and Labels (Top Posted)
Welcome!
I’m going to start by talking about Names and Labels and explaining the Name I have
given to this blog.
Names
and Labels can be so constraining and revealing at the same time. They put us
in boxes of assumptions that go along with those names and labels. They can
lead us astray by setting up expectations that any of us can be fully defined
by our labels and names. At the same time, they can offer a glimpse into our
identities that, as long as they are understood to be simply a beginning, can
offer some insights into how we see ourselves.
As
author Bill Bryson wrote in The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That
Way, “…there must be some conventions of usage. We must agree to spell cat
c-a-t and not e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t and we must agree that by that word we mean a
small furry quadruped that goes meow and sits comfortably on one’s lap
and not a large lumbering beast that grows tusks and is exceedingly difficult
to housebreak.” So, yes, Names and Labels have meanings. But, if you assume that
cat completely defines every single cat, you will be greatly disappointed
if you got a Siamese cat expecting it to behave the same as an Orange Tabby.
So,
I’ll start with some of my Names. My legal name is Todd Strickland. But I have other names that are applied to me. I’m known as
Daddy, Brother, Sweetie (as a Husband), Reverend, Pastor, and Chaplain. All of
those names suit me but, like the Siamese and the Tabby, they don’t fully define
me.
Some
of the Labels that are attached to me suit me, likewise, but don’t fully define
me. I am a cisgender male. (If this term cisgender is new to you it essentially
means that my gender matches the label that was put on my birth certificate
when I was born.) I am a heterosexual married man. I am a father, a brother, an
ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, an educator, a psychotherapist, an
addictions counselor, a baseball fan (or, as my mother used to put it, a fan of
anything that involves a ball), a singer (formerly a tenor, now a baritone), a
dancer (not professionally trained but I love to dance), a bicyclist and triathlete,
and a writer. But all those labels aren’t exhaustive and only begin to define
me. Despite all those professional labels I used, I am currently employed as
none of them. Instead, I’m not just a father, I am a stay-at-home father. On the one hand, I am
a triathlete who is content to finish a triathlon and doesn’t expect to win
them. On the other hand, I am a singer who has had the honor of singing at
Carnegie Hall. I am a father who was raised by a gentle man and who aspires to
raise my son and daughter likewise. All of these labels begin to
describe me but are only that, a beginning.
The
name I have given to this blog, BuddhistDruidChristianHumanist, comes out of my
time as a chaplain. I walked into a room on the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
which was one of my regular rotations. I introduced myself as the chaplain for
this unit and the man I introduced myself to replied, “My name is Tim. I’m a Buddhist
Druid,” and then he laughed. He probably thought he was going to throw me off
but instead it became the beginning of a great conversation that we had over the
next couple months until he died suddenly.
Tim
is the Buddhist Druid even though he wasn’t actually a Buddhist Druid. But the
label suited his broad philosophy of life, his mindfulness, his reverence for
nature, and his humor. The Christian Humanist is me. It only begins to define
my theology and philosophy (which could probably include Buddhist and Druid in
some ways) but it is a significant label. Humanism in modern parlance is often
attached to the word “secular.” However, there is a rich history of religious
humanism and Christian Humanism that has gotten lost in time. Christian Humanism
is at the core of various movements in human history from the Renaissance to
the American Revolution to the anti-slavery movement and beyond. It is an
identity that takes seriously Jesus’ reply to the question of what is the
greatest commandment when he said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first
commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Mt. 22:37-40)
So,
that’s me, in a label, a Buddhist Druid Christian Humanist. Both the beginning of me
and a continuing journey.
Thank you for sharing this insight into who you are (in part!). Most of the details I was already
ReplyDeleteaware of from the time you spent as one of our JUC ministers and from your FB posts. I knew
you were an excellent writer, an outstanding speaker, and a gentle being. I understood how important your role as a father is and how you are raising your children to be wonderful, cherished human beings. But I didn't know you loved to dance -- a fun fact among the more serious information. I find you to be an interesting and caring person and will continue to read what you choose to share. Again, thank you, Todd!
You're welcome. Yes, I've always loved dancing, many kinds. I probably got the bug in high school when I played the part of Pippin in the musical and I got to dance a lot for that role. But then I've enjoyed contradancing also. And, since your post shows up as anonymous, I don't know if you were at JUC when I took tap dancing and performed at a JUC talent show with other members of my tap dancing class.
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