"If somebody mispronounces [my name] in some foolish way, I have the feeling that

what’s foolish is me. If somebody forgets it, I feel that it is I who am forgotten.

There’s something about it that embarrasses me in just the same way that there’s

something about me that embarrasses me. I can’t imagine myself with any other

name: Held, say, or Merrill, or Hlavacek. If my name were different, I would be

different. When I tell somebody my name, I have given him a hold over me that he

didn’t have before. If he calls it out, I stop, look, and listen whether I want to or not."

-FREDERICK BUECHNER