蜜芽传媒

Chris, let me apologise now. At some point in the future I may well call you by another name. When I first met your Radio 2 colleague Sara Cox, I spent the whole conversation calling her Jo. (I have a friend named Jo Cox鈥攜ou can see what my brain did.)

听

This brain-freeze on names happens regularly and has led to great embarrassment. Years ago, walking down the road with my girlfriend, I bumped into an old schoolmate. I said, 鈥淪teve! Please meet my girlfriend鈥攖his is鈥� this is鈥︹�� But I couldn鈥檛 remember her name!

听

I have faced some justice, though. I once rented a flat from an Italian man who got my name wrong on rent receipts, calling me 鈥楽tefan Wysley鈥� one week and 鈥楽heldon Voyeur鈥� the next. Then there was the colleague who couldn鈥檛 stop calling me Eugene.

听

Names are more than mere words. To me, they鈥檙e suitcases holding the essence of our identity鈥攕tuffed full of the memories and experiences that make us who we are. So it can be jarring to have our names mistaken, forgotten, or never used. It can suggest we aren鈥檛 really known.

听

I鈥檓 struck by two stories in the Christian scriptures. In one, Jesus meets a guy named Nathanael, about whom he reveals all sorts of unlearned details. Nathanael says in astonishment, 鈥淲e鈥檝e never met鈥攈ow do you know me?鈥� In the other story, Jesus calls a conman named Zacchaeus out of the crowd by name鈥攁n event that turns Zacchaeus鈥� life around.

听

For me, these aren鈥檛 just nice stories; they鈥檙e stories of God walking on earth. And they lead me to believe that even in our loneliest moments there is Someone who still knows us鈥攅very atom, molecule, and nanosecond of our existence; every success, loss, failure, dream鈥擲omeone who knows us intimately and calls us by name.

听

I believe that鈥檚 good news for everyone, not least those whose names I mess up.

听

Sorry Ken, but that could next include you.

听