CECILIA

Yesterday, in a store, the clerk serving me was named "Cecilia". Naturally, I began to sing "Cecilia". The clerk said, "My grandpa always sings that to me." Knowing right then that I was probably close to her grandpa's age, I said, "He must be a Paul Simon fan." As I thought about the next line of the song, I realized that it was hardly appropriate for a grandfather to be singing to a granddaughter. I asked her, "How much of the song does he sing to you?" She answered, "Just the name." Relieved at knowing that Grandpa had not sung any of the risque lyrics to her, I asked her if she knew the rest of the song; she said she'd never listened to it.

I thought, "NEVER listened to it? If I were named Cecilia, and I knew there was a song with that name, I'm sure I would've listened to it!"

I debated with myself about continuing, but surged ahead, "Well, you're probably named for St. Cecilia." She said, "I've never heard of that." I said, "She's the patron saint of musicians."

Undeterred, I continued, "There's a couple of poems by famous poets about St. Cecilia you could google."

This reminded me another clerk named Laura and when I sang a snippet of the song "Laura" to her, she said she'd never heard the song and she thought I'd made it up! When I asked her if she'd ever seen the movie, she asked who was in it and when I said, "Gene Tierney" she said she'd never heard of HIM. How could anyone named Laura not know about the song and movie?

The lack of curiosity by people is a constant source of amazement to me!

However, there is hope: my favorite store clerk is named Soren and he was also pleased when I asked if he were named for Kierkegaard and he said that his parents are existentialists! That made my day! I always try to get in Soren's line at the store!

Les asked, "What is it with you and clerks?"