After a pleasant enough morning yesterday visiting civil and financial institutions of one kind or another, I made my way to work and started breaking the news to colleagues.
"So how long does it take to become a 'shodhin?" the secretary across the hall asked. I tried to explain that it wasn't a title, but a real name (I had to pull out the new drivers license to prove it!).
"I'm happy to learn a new name," my one departmental colleague emailed me after I suggested I wouldn't be offended if people forgot and used the old name instead, "but I need to know how to pronounce it. I'm guessing the 'dh' might be 'puffy'." I emailed back:
The woman at the HR desk said that she had done last name changes but not first name changes, and she was pleased to have something different to think about for once!
I feel like I'm coming out. "We always knew he was ordained, but now he's in our face about it," I imagine someone saying. "Why couldn't he have just kept this quiet?" I imagine a colleague whispering to another at the coffee pot.
I'm anticipating a few more congratulatory remarks (a couple of people were quite expansive in their expression of delight). I'm expecting many more questions. I'm sure there'll be some gossiping. Most of all, though, I'm actually hoping that some might find some degree of inquisitiveness about the Dharma arising within them. And who knows what might become of that?
"So how long does it take to become a 'shodhin?" the secretary across the hall asked. I tried to explain that it wasn't a title, but a real name (I had to pull out the new drivers license to prove it!).
"I'm happy to learn a new name," my one departmental colleague emailed me after I suggested I wouldn't be offended if people forgot and used the old name instead, "but I need to know how to pronounce it. I'm guessing the 'dh' might be 'puffy'." I emailed back:
Sho- like show, as in "that was a very good show" (but not with an Ed Sullivan twist, for those of us who can remember such things); -dhin like din, as in "above the din of the engines a cry could be heard" (not at all puffy, though a Sanskritist might say otherwise...)"That was easy," my chair replied (he'd been cc'd on the email because he had also asked in an earlier one for a pronunciation guide).
The woman at the HR desk said that she had done last name changes but not first name changes, and she was pleased to have something different to think about for once!
I feel like I'm coming out. "We always knew he was ordained, but now he's in our face about it," I imagine someone saying. "Why couldn't he have just kept this quiet?" I imagine a colleague whispering to another at the coffee pot.
I'm anticipating a few more congratulatory remarks (a couple of people were quite expansive in their expression of delight). I'm expecting many more questions. I'm sure there'll be some gossiping. Most of all, though, I'm actually hoping that some might find some degree of inquisitiveness about the Dharma arising within them. And who knows what might become of that?
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