Danny, the dog and Names

"I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord." Psalm 116 Yesterday my "insight" after listening to the readings was "Let God be God". So today's psalm evokes an image of Jewish ritual. The priest or the rabbi holds the cup, asks Yahweh to bless it and gives thanks. Calling on the name of the Lord. I love that! Calling on the name of the Lord. Names are big for the Hebrew spirituality... calling someone by name, I've been told, establishes a relationship then between the two, namer and named. So the person calling on the name of the Lord recognizes the presence of the Other, the Creator, the Lover. This reminds me of hearing my name called. When I was little, my parents would call my name... and I could tell by the tone of voice if it meant dinner, or that I was in trouble, that I had a nice surprise or was being given a chore to do. Friends would have nicknames for me... that was fun, mostly. One friend called me "Betty" and I called her "Celeste" which struck us funny every time we said it. It conjured images I think of Thelma and Louise or LaVerne and Shirley. For a long time, Pete couldn't call me by name... what that was about I don't know. But, when he finally did, oh, that made me happy. The boys called me Mommy only for a short time, and then I became Mom. Most of the time I have loved being called that. There were days I'd have liked to divorce myself from the title... when I was tired and losing my identity as an entire person. Now, I'm over 50 and getting reacquainted with who Katie is. Part of who she is knows that raising the cup, blessing it and giving thanks is an important part of discovering more of who I am . "Calling on God, calling on God!" Oh, I'm reminded of Kaitlin, played by Amy Poehler on SNL. She has a special relationship with her stepdad, Rick. Rick is patient and longsuffering. Kaitlin is manic and her brain is active... I'd say she is fully alive. I think I'll try emulating Kaitlin's relationship with Rick in my prayer life. It's not very mature, but it's REAL. Try hulu.com, "kaitlin goes to the mall".