What's in a Title?

My calling card

     I have searched for 14 months for the means in which I may contribute to making things visible and feel whole, creative and balanced while doing it.

It’s been an interesting road.

What freedom! What joy! What … oh my stars and garters, what confusion!

How do I know what one title is idoneous? (appropriate, fit, suitable, ept)

And … even more importantly, how do I pick one that has staying power? One that won’t change in a few days as I grow and learn?  (As I have done tremendously over these last 14 months.)

Jester, Trickster, Weaver — just doesn’t trip lightly off the tongue, now, does it? True, but … not quite the mark.

Storyteller — well, yes … yet we are all that.

I wanted something unique … something pithy … something that when someone came across it, if they didn’t know me, it would open the door between us, give us that ice-breaker for communication.

“What in tarnation is a _______________?”

Yep, that’s a grand ice-breaker!

I tell tales about triumphing over great adversity and claiming or re-claiming one’s place in the world.

I yearn to tell stories in informal, private gatherings—among friends and kin—where we can speak our minds freely.

Actually ... I yearn to make formal, public gatherings places where we *can* speak our minds freely.

I tell dreams—-stories that bring up truths that conventional society represses or ignores.

You can too, if you want too. I must give the caveat: It can be dangerous. It can be miserable. It can be awakening. It can be life-giving.

There, you are warned.

Now on with my search for a title.

You see, I want my title to reflect my goals as well … I want to waken people from exile; enslavement; humiliation; shame; blame; from feeling: attacked, terrorized, imprisoned; from being silenced … from being invisible.

Whether it’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or any other sense.

In my most heroic visions of myself, I want to provide a clarion cry to awaken and galvanize the world … no, why think in such small terms … the universe … the cosmos … the known and unknown.

No ego in my family, I have it all.

We Are Visible.

One of the ways we make our self visible is through our stories.

Many of my colleagues are Road Warriors — they present stories that may bring you to feeling just plain angry.

I’m no good at that. For me, fighting means I give no-quarter.

I’m an illustrator of how to recover from, overcome, and/or change things, within and without.

Change Agent is a nice title … yet a little too vague, and it implies I act on others.

The truth is others choose to act on what we (they and I) share, so that technically makes me a Catalyst.

Naw, that doesn’t roll trippingly off the tongue either.

Okay, so what do I call myself?

Wait … I’ve got it!

It doesn’t have to be forever … it can change as I do, and it’s certainly true for now.

Not only is it what I talk, it’s what I walk …

Chief-Executive Ugly Duckling

… and it leaves me room to grow into something else.

I also have a story to share with you entitled: Transform Reality. The Ugly Duckling Story; Some Assembly Required.

::grin:: But you have to ask me about it, I’m not gonna shove it down your throat.

It is after all, a call to action … social change.

It takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes and is suitable for any age.

And my tagline?

Abuse and homelessness (among other things) can be healed by how we perceive ourself, and hence how we perceive and act with others.

Side Note: If my title sounds too far out for you, translate it to this:

Performance Artist; Abuse and Homelessness Advocate

C’est moi!

I wish for you … each and everyone one of you to grow and thrive.