Death is an inevitable and
unavoidable part of life. There is no
way around it. Still, it hit me like a
ton of bricks last evening when I learned of the death of Robin Williams. How could someone so full of life and
laughter be gone? When I found out that
he presumably took his own life, well that was like having a second ton
dropped. For someone who so freely gave
the world so much of himself and his unending talent, could we all have missed
giving back what this comedic genius needed to feel that this life was worth
living? Did he need more than the
affection of his millions of fans worldwide?
Depression is a dark and merciless thief.
It steals one’s ability to see past the gloom and pain to the good
inherent in life itself. If only Robin
could have found a way to step through that dark fog he would have seen a world
that loved him, in all of his personas.
From Mork to the Fisher King, from Mrs. Doubtfire to Peter Pan and a
hundred characters equally amazing along with them, Robin Williams gave people
one of the greatest of all gifts, laughter. His never scripted stream of consciousness standup routines were unequal to anything done before or since. Never at the expense of others,
always generated, seemingly out of magic from his crazy-beautiful mind.
In an attempt to process this, and I
guess to somehow deal with the thought of this loss of laughter in the world, I
thought I would try my hand at a “stand up” bit. Obviously not in front of an audience, but
then again…
What's in a name?
Announcer: Put your hands together for a branch new act,
in his first ever stand up performance… Chris Blough
Thank you, it’s great to be here! And it is great to be called by my real name. Usually I'm “Caedon, Brody or Greyson's dad”, which I am totally fine with. Or when they are all in the same hot water, “Are you these boys’ father?” Or when they break something “Dad!!!”, still it's good to hear your actual name every now and then.
A lot of thought goes into a name you know; it’s good to know that it gets used now and then. I remember trying to settle on a name with my wife when we were expecting our oldest son. We agonized over books and websites and books with lists of websites. We had a list of girls names and boy names and alternate names and absolutely no's and sort of maybes … it was insanity.
You throw out any names of elementary school friends right away, because you don't want to start the relationship with your newborn out the gates thinking about the kid who peed in the lunch line. Then you both have to veto any names of past significant others, for obvious reasons. Some of you had a harder time with that than others, I know. So finally we settle on a name. And it can't just sound cool, when it's your first you have to come up with profound meaning behind it too.
We named our firstborn son Caedon Christopher Blough. Caedon is Celtic, means wise warrior. Christopher wasn't as original, obviously, but means follower of Christ. So we were thrilled, when we settled on it and then we were absolutely obnoxious about it for the next 12 months.
“Oh, what a handsome baby boy” a kindly stranger would say, “Thank you and did you want to know his name, its Caedon Christopher, means wise warrior for Christ”. “This is my son, Caedon Christopher. Means wise warrior for Christ”.
“Hey want to meet a wise warrior, right here under this blanket!”
Finally, I was at the hardware store one Saturday morning with the boy, spending some significant father son time. When the older wiser gentlemen behind the counter commented,
“Oh, good to see you’re getting your boy started out young shopping for tools with dad”
“Yep, his names Caedon Christopher, means wise warrior for Christ”
“Really, well the warrior just threw up on his Thomas the tank engine bib there, might want to get that cleaned up before he goes off to battle”...
ACE really is a helpful hardware place...
When you have more than one child the pressure is on to come up with additional, equally cool names. Lots of parents agonize over this. We were no different, especially once we realized we were having another boy. I mean you have some pressure here, you know people are always going to put you on the spot,
“What are your boys’ names?”
“Oh, well this is Caedon Christopher, means wise warrior for Christ. And yea, the little one, this is Ralph”
So you have to get creative. We finally settled on a name for our second son, Broden. Anyone know what Broden means? It means brother. Yep, the creative juices were flowing heavy. But hey, it fits right?
By the time my third son was on the way our brains were mush, but the pressure was still on. I didn't want to be at the hardware store and have to introduce Caedon, Broden and Ralph. So I get a call from my wife one evening while she’s at work.
“Honey, I think I found the perfect name for the baby.”
“Oh yea, great! What?”
“Greyson”. Ok, I like the sound of that...Caedon Broden and Greyson, that passes the hardware store test.
“So what does it mean?”
“It means son of the grey haired man.”
…Long pause…
“ Yep… that'll do.”
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