What's in a name?

I took a short rest from blog writing for one night only because my sleeping habits changed just slightly from the new Chemo. I actually seemed to manage pain better and found myself sleeping through the blog writing time. This is a good thing maybe. It just shows me, once again, I need to be flexible on this path, that's for darn sure. Seriously, I'm feeling pretty good this week from the new Chemo and keeping the gremlins at bay. We all hope and pray that this phenom anon can be translated into something good. Something the doctors can acknowledge. I know for sure that your prayers and energy are giving me the edge to be able to bear all this better than most. For that I am so very grateful.
Over the past few days I was picking a few stories to put into writing for the blogs and I couldn't decide on which one. Then yesterday I went to the front door and found a big gift bag sitting on the porch. I did a quick peek left and right move just like in the movies to be ready if someone actually was there to surprise me. But it was too cold for anyone to be out there anyway. I brought the bag in and sat to check the contents. Oh my, as I started pulling out the little gifts and reading the card at the same time I really couldn't keep the emotion holding tank from erupting. Happy tears for sure. Wonderful, thoughtful gifts from a few very special people, obviously encouraged by one particular young lady who shall remain nameless. But it did bring back a lot of memories and also reminded me of one of my most treasured gifts. The other day I talked about really understanding your own pot of gold, what your gold coins really look like. The art of taking the time to understand your true blessings. Well here is my attempt to share another particular golden coin that I realized I have been lucky enough to collect many of over the years. Let's call it "terms of endearment" for lack of a better way to put it. Over the years I have always been a jokester with kids and especially those kids that for some reason seemed to sneak right into the middle of my heart so easily. From my own tremendous children to many many others, I have been blessed with a huge "family" of special pals. The way I realized just how special or which pals I really had was from those unique and silly names used between us. It was early in my daughters lives that I found out "Dad, you are such a dork" was a marvelous term of endearment and a compliment I would never not want to have. I would develop return terms that were unique to me and use them whenever I could to both embarrass and admire my children. Like the term "Pickle Head". It started as something very special to one of my daughters, then to both, then to a few very special young neighbors and friends, then to an actual Christmas tree ornament, which finally had me using it often for any young person that I really wanted to let know that I thought they were something special. Today, they all know who they are still and that makes me happy. I often hear a little voice yell out "Hey Mr. Pickle Head" across the room. Now, even my grandchildren bear the honorary title as well. Sort of like, my very own special stash of "Pickles" With the boys, I was their favorite "nerd" or sometimes their "smuck" and they too would borrow from the girls and share the "dork" label once in a while. The wonderful part was that it never stopped. I looked forward to it. I must have got better at what I was doing so that the recognition kept coming. We all have nicknames, but not all of us have real names that promote crazy nick names. Marcou, from early in my teen days brought on "Cou" which as each of my children reached their teen years, they too somehow picked up "Cou". I was always so proud to hear it used. There were then derivatives and shortcuts that came along such as "CouCouCaChou" surprisingly first used in a stadium full of Christian mature men as a small group spotted me on stage singing and wanted the other 67,000 attendees to know that they knew one of those guys on the stage. Then "CouDog" and "Couter" and a few more. Then from age, it all slowed to a more mature and simple label of "PappaCou". Well then came "MammaCou" and "BigDaddyCou", "LittleCou" and even "CouLovesYouToo". Some of this was due to technology. The need for screen names. I was always so tickled and actually honored when I would catch a glimpse of one of my kids screen names and realize how they enjoyed using them. This trend spread too to many of my special pals, one in particular, which gets us back to the gift bag. Many many years ago, I came in through my front door at he end of a hard day, only to find several hundred little girls, "brownies" actually having a troop meeting there in the living room. Okay, maybe not hundreds but at least 15 to 20. There at the door was a pile of pink, yellow and white shoes for me to trip over. Well I could never resist having some fun with kids and thereby disrupting any sense of an organized meeting that might be going on, so i came in, pretended to smell something rather disgusting, made a gesture of anquish, fell to my knees and began smelling each pair of shoes. The girls were stunned of course and starting to giggle and once I knew I had their attention I picked up the next pair, took a deep smell and preceded to whirl and toss and fall to my death in a manner worthy of an academy award. Then of course Cindy urged me to get up so she could calm the girls down but I continued to draw them in to my performance by saying, Oh my my, who's shoes are these? Who on earth has the stinky feet that belong in these shows. I didn't really know at the time, but I quickly found out by the give away expression on one young ladies face. Of course she was devastated that it was her shoes and certainly could not believe that it was true, but I from that day on never ever let her off the hook. She became, from that day on, "Stinky Feet". I had so much fun with that, and continued it for at least 5 or 6 years because I could see our relationship only flurished from it. Then one day as she turned a mature 13, her mom came to me and said, "You know she loves the name but she is wondering if you could just shorten it to "SF". With her about to enter middle and high school she just doesn't think "Stinky Feet" would be appropriate and felt she could keep some of her dignity. I don't think she really trusted me at that time. I didn't give in too easily of course but as the next 6 years went on, i did control myself and used only the "SF" reference, with a slight purposely delivered and well timed "slip up", where the "Stinky Feet" words just slipped out. One day when she was I think a Junior in High School, when technology was running rampant with the kids and everyone was dialing up on AOL and picking screen names, I happened to find out that this young lady had selected a name relative to "Stinky Feet" and I was immediately flooded with warmth in my heart. It was just like my own daughters calling me a "dork". It was a true term of endearment for me. I realized then how special our relationship had been all those years and still is. Oh, and then, somewhere in this time frame, I was honored and promoted up to Mr. "SF", of which i was indeed proud. Well, of course the gift bag was indeed from "Stinky Feet", opps, "SF"and as i enjoyed opening the gifts it made me think of so many special young people in my life. It reminded me of the 4 years at WWHS where I often heard, "Mr. Cou", "Knock Knock" (which has a story that gets back to Cou), Professor Cou, Santa Cou and even Daddy Cou. What fun. What incredible gifts. I am at a time now from this awful situation, where I am forced to look at my life, to go over it, rerun it as much as possible, and I am so very happy with the results. Results like this, where my gifts, my gold coins, become evident and shine so bright that they knock me off my feet. A simple bag of cookies becomes invaluable golden treasure because of the memories and stories surrounding the times I let people become part of my life. People young and old. How very blessed I am. Thank you Ms. "SF" and your family and Kristen and your family. Thank you for the thoughtful gifts, wonderful energy, warm memories and shared love. You too are loved. God bless you all!