I glanced down a list of 50 conversation starter questions recently over at Suite 101.com and one of them intrigued me: “If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?”
I’d hate to be named after a state for a couple of reasons. First, it sounds a little too Frank Zappa to me. Second, one state wouldn’t suit me for my entire life.
Early in my life I was introverted, shy, and avoided risk. I’m thinking I would have been called Kansas. In my early 20s I was a partier so I would have probably had to submit a name change to California. In my late 20s I became a Christian so I would have had to bug the judge again to change my name to one of the states in the Bible belt. In my 30s I was heavily involved in conservative politics before the movement became everything it said it was not; maybe I would have chosen one of the U.S. territories for a name as a form of protest. In my 40s I find myself immersed in the publishing industry with a strong desire to be immersed in community, so maybe I should be New York now, but I suspect I would probably end up being Colorado.
Why?
New York has too many people. I wouldn’t know where to start to fit in. Colorado seems to have a nice mix of secluded areas and gathering places for community. And several publishers are located there. Yeah, I know about upstate New York and it’s beautiful wooded areas and I know that NYC has a vast number of publishing houses. But Colorado seems more my speed.
What about you? Which state would you be named after?
