What's In a Name

By the time you get to the bottom of this image (HA!  I'm just following the V&V guidelines), I'm sure you've guessed it's from Venice---a trip in 2007.  (If you want to see it fast and in one swell foop, click here.)

Astrid and I just returned a week ago from our honeymoon to England, where we saw Stoke on Trent, Chester, Chatsworth, Stratford and Liverpool...as well as The Three Stooges, our third Musketeer, and 13 others of our blogging friends.  I was supposed to turn right around and fly back to Atlanta this past Saturday (sans wife) to visit my children, grandson and friends for 10 days.  Because of the volcanic ash, my flight has been re-scheduled for Wednesday...if the skies clear.

Venice.  Astrid.  England.  Stoke on Trent.  Chester.  Chatsworth.  Stratford.  Liverpool.  Three Stooges.  Musketeers.  Atlanta.  Wife.  Children.  Grandson.  Friends.  Bloggers.  Volcanic ash.

What's in a name?!  For those of us at our Shutterchance photoblog (SC) this past week, we've had a chance to put a face with a name.  A face with a label, like Blackdog, Tiff, Mully, and Picturit.  Why are 3 of our SC gents called the Three Stooges...and 3 of us ladies The Three Musketeers?  Does it feel different to call me Virginia instead of Ginnie (though I'm both)?  And what do you immediately think of when you see the name Marcie or Toni or the rest of us V&Vers?

Think of what would happen if Venice and Tanzania suddenly switched names.  We're flying to Tanzania this weekend and can hardly wait to ride a gondola!  Wait.  What's a gondola?  And if you've ever riden in one, what memories does it conjure up for you?

Have you ever experienced meeting someone in real life whom you've known virtually for awhile...but you suddenly have to go back and try to remember what it is you already know about this new person?  The one standing in front of you somehow is different from the other one, the blogger.  It's like he/she should have a new name.

What's in a name, indeed.  A place.  A person.  A memory.  A taste.  A color.  A smell.  A feeling.  A sorrow.  A joy.  Somehow everything comes down to what we name things.  And if we have an image to accompany it, the name takes on new meaning.  The face connects to a name. The meaning connects to a word.  The memory connects to a place.  Sometimes the face is the memory.  Sometimes the place is the meaning.  Or a word is the name.

See what happens with photography!  You get to think up all kinds of stories and ask so many questions...especially if your image doesn't quite turn out the way you expected!   But it does look like Venice, right?  Because the image and name really are connected!  (Did someone say Vision and Verb?) 

It's a Small World After All

This week, Thursday, Astrid and I fly [faster than a tricycle without pedals!] to Liverpool from Amsterdam for a 5-day honeymoon.  We will be staying with Tracy, a fellow Shutterchancer (SC) whom we met 3 years ago and whom we call the 3rd Musketeer.  On Saturday morning we will meet up with the Three Stooges, 3 SC fellas (all from the UK) we have grown close to over the years:  Bill, Chris and Chad.  Astrid has already met them.  On Saturday afternoon we will then meet up with many other SCers from all over who will get together just for the halibut...most of whom have never yet met each other.

This has got me thinking about our virtual communities and the amount of time we spend with each other on our blogs, reading and commenting back-n-forth.  A virtual friend I recently met through this community, V&V, told me that sometimes these virtual friendships are more real than...reality.  I had to stop and think about that!  She may be right:  I spend more time with some of you than my friends from Atlanta (now that I'm on the other side of the Pond).  On SC I joke around with friends I've never met but whose sentences I can finish.

Our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world where this is the ho-hum norm.  While we all know of the "freak accidents" of the Internet world, sometimes with costly invasions of our privacy, we still bare our souls to each other, perhaps in ways we have never previously done.  If we actually meet in real life, a friendship can be truly cemented...for life.

Already in the young world of V&V I am starting to feel "connected."  Based on my blogging experience thus far, I'm guessing I'll eventually even meet some of you.  It's such a small world after all!  And Petra, a fellow collaborator here on V&V, is only 30 km away!  Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

And now that I think of it, Astrid and I met in 2007  through our SC photoblog community while commenting on each other's posts.  Three months later we had the chance to actually meet while I was in the Netherlands and then started doing photo hunts together.  Almost 3 years later, I moved to Holland where we are now wife and wife...getting ready to go on our honeymoon.

It's a small world after all!  I'm humming the tune of the Disneyland ride I have taken so many times, reminded of the "children of the world, frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the ride's title track, which has a theme of global peace."

It's a world of laughter,
A world of tears.
It's a world of hopes,
And a world of fears.
There's so much that we share,
That it's time we're aware,
It's a small world after all.

There is just one moon,
And one golden sun.
And a smile means,
Friendship to every one.
Though the mountains divide,
And the oceans are wide,
It's a small world after all.

--By Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman

I would say that just about says it all!