A Name Is Worth A Couple Hundred Words

Recently I've had the privilege of spending time getting to know a dear friend of mine. I can now call this person a dear friend of mine, because he has allowed me the opportunity to meet "the real him". Through the process of truly getting to know one another, we shared a lot of the deep, dark, hurtful things about one another's lives that we often try to keep suppressed. One of the most important aspects of getting to know someone is coming to them with a blank slate of opinion on them, and letting them fill in the blanks with fact.

I bring all of this up because, I think we as people believe that our preconceived ideas about people are truly who they are. We have the tendency to superimpose on people the judgments we conjure up, wether positive or negative. In doing all this, we think we know a person long before we ever get to know them. Sometimes this act is so petty, that based on a surname we think we know all about someone.

Though sometimes I am mostly lost during pop culture discussions, I am very grateful for the fact that I am ignorant when it comes to knowing who's who in society. God is no respecter of persons, and I've done my best to adopt that mentality. This ignorance of social standing really came in handy with this particular friend of mine. When I first heard about him, I was told his first name, and then his last name much more dramatically. I looked at the person speaking with a blank stare, and they continued to tell me of my friend's prestigious family, and influential lineage. After all that, I still had no idea who or what they were talking about, and forgot about the whole thing as quickly as I'd heard it all. I wasn't impressed or affected either way, and looked forward to getting to know the individual the same as I would any other new person. I just simply had no idea who they were or what that meant.

Had I created expectations of him based on his family name, I would have missed out on getting to know Taylor Garlock. On the flip side of all this, I refuse to believe he is a "representative" of his entire family. He is his own person, with his own ideas, yet certainly has inherited some of the great things his family is known for. But the most exciting part is that Taylor is creating a wonderful new facet of the "Garlock" name. I say all of this with no romantic undertone, but with admiration of a man who has already survived and achieved much, and who I know will accomplish much more.