What's in a Name?

photo credit: HG

Every visit I make to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts begins in the Ancient Near East gallery 110. There, my eye is drawn to the stunning Striding Lion, 7.6 feet wide x 3.5 feet tall, made of glazed bricks, in beautiful tones of tan and turquoise. According to the MFA website, it is "one of 120 lifesize lions that lined the Processional Way from the Ishtar Gate to the Temple of Marduk at Babylon" during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. It is dated between 604 - 561 B.C. [for more information, click HERE]

Striding Lion is meaningful to me, because it provides a link to my beloved maternal Grandfather, Leo Ryan. (The Latin word for lion is leo.) Leo died in 1956 when I was 8 years old, so my memories of him are dim. However, I remember him as kind and gentle; he was always happy to make time for me. He worked for the New York Central Railroad, as an accountant, I believe, although he never talked to me about his work. My grandparents had a TV back in those early days (mid-1950s), and I loved to sleep over at their house, help my grandmother cook, "work" at my grandfather’s desk, and hang out with my grandfather in the evenings watching TV. We always shared an apple. As he said, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." They had a large piece of furniture that housed a record changer, and I spent untold hours playing their records. I still remember that they had an album of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (multiple 78 rpms), which was quite avant garde of them. I wonder which of my grandparents bought that set of records and what they thought of it. At the time, I just knew it as one of their records. I wish I knew more.

That desire to know my departed family members better, as people, was one of my initial motivations to blog. I have written about that HERE.

Here's the relevant part:

One of my motivations for writing "Inner Geek" [a blog I wrote in the early 2000s] was to help my kids and grandkids know me more as a 3D person than simply as a role, like Dad or Grampa. I wished I had known my parents and grandparents more as people than simply as their roles. I especially wish I had known my maternal grandfather Leo better. I was very close to him, but he died unexpectedly in his sleep when I was 8 years old. I certainly knew him as a loving grandfather, but I know there was much more to him that I will never know.

Leo Francis Ryan, my maternal grandfather, in 1955

I was so fond of my grandfather that I took his name Leo as my confirmation name. It's been a way of retaining a tiny portion of him; but now I have Striding Lion as a tangible reminder as well.

The recent death of Pope Francis has created yet another link to my grandfather, whose middle name was Francis. Both men were friendly, gentle, kind, and principled - but they were no pushovers. The name Francis has even broader family connections -- it's one of my sons' middle name, my father-in-law's first name, and my brother-in-law's middle name. Are names things that just "are," or can they inspire us to be better versions of ourselves?

I associate Leo (the lion) with courage and directness, but also with an inscrutable kind of empathy. In Striding Lion I see a fierce defender. When I think of Francis, St. Francis of Assisi immediately comes to mind - the Italian mystic and friar (d. 10-3-1226) who founded the Franciscan order and chose to live a life of poverty. He is considered the patron saint of animals and the environment.

Since his election as pope, I have been struck by Pope Francis' clear message of social justice, one that is frequently drowned out by all the other chatter in the world.

Photo by Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash

His papacy was intensely covered by the media, and he was indeed a very quotable pope. Last week, a friend shared with me a collection of inspiring quotes from Pope Francis. Here are 5 favorites of mine:

"We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace."

"May the relationship between man and nature not be driven by greed, to manipulate and exploit, but may the divine harmony between beings and creation be conserved in the logic of respect and care."

"Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow."

"It's hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help... If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I'm a hypocrite."

"Rivers do not drink their water; trees do not eat their fruit. Life is meant for sharing."

How can I best honor the memory of these two men?

I want to emulate many of my grandfather's qualities that endeared him to me then and now: kindness, gentleness, competence, calmness, love. He lived through two World Wars (fighting in WWI and sending his son, my uncle Jim, off to fight in WWII) and the Great Depression, and helped his family navigate through really difficult times ... with perseverance and minimal drama.

Pope Francis inspires me to be more conscious of the needs of others and of my responsibility to them; to be a better steward of the environment; and to speak out in support of social justice. This essay is a small step in that process.

I'd be very interested to hear your stories about the power of names to inspire.