Blog titles

Blogs. Everyone has one. Well, not everyone; but comedians couldn't make blogging jokes about there being so many, if there were not so many people that have them. All comedians know the axiom: Humor is simply TRUTH + VISION. And, strangely enough, the same axiom works for words like Possession, Enlightenment, and Insanity -- and all these words embody what I think of when I think of blogging.

In making my first blog I felt strongly about the title. I spent days agonizing over what to call this. I changed my mind a dozen times, but returned to the current title -- amanuensis -- for its multiple and varied interpretations. For those who do not know, amanuensis means "one who takes dictation" or "a person employed to copy a manuscript." How perfect a title is that for a blog? Isn't that a blog's purpose -- take dictation and maybe get a book deal?

But amanuensis was not only chosen for its meaning, but its sound.
Say it aloud.

\ə-ˌman-yə-ˈen -səs\

A Man You En Sis

A Man You Insis(t)

A man you instst? One word embodying an eternal epistomogical question of self. How could I not choose that title?

How did I arrive at this conclusion?

A few years ago I stumbled on this word while teaching a Creative Writing class at my high school, Missisquoi Valley Union, in Vermont. In order to get kids to write, I would give them prompts (because most high school students {not all so get off my case you few} who want to become writers don't have ideas yet), and when they would get a bit of writer's block (which was practically every five minutes because of the hormones, and energy drinks, running through their systems) I would give them random words from my dictionary (also called "the classroom bible") to refocus their uncontrollable, caffeinated desires. So, in a way, this word found me. I wrote it down in my journal -- and four years later, it's the title of my first blog.