My nickname

My name is Philip Flynt. I am (un)known online by many as Whistlinphil.

That's a lousy way to open a blog generally, I know but names are really important, and that is the main thrust of this first blog.

I chose to use this name after jokingly being called Whistling Phil by someone at my job eight years ago. He made the statement because he and I were the only people in the building many mornings and he heard me whistling Christmas carols (in late spring, of course). I whistle a lot in general, but I hum even more. I liked 'Whistlinphil' better than the alternative ('Hummer'; I don't like the urban tanks).

Since that time, I have used the nickname on multiple Websites, my email handle, and as a pseudonym for writings (I publish rambling memoirs called 'Whistlinphil Books'). Some people call me by this handle "in real life" both because they have seen the nick online and because they have heard me whistle while I work so much. Sometimes it a little tongue-in-cheek and sometimes it is more meaningful.  Almost all of the time, though, it feels good to me when someone calls me by my nickname. It is a designation. Almost like a special position. An announcement of my identity.

Several months ago, my 'bosses' at both of my jobs (the one where I earn a paycheck and the one where I volunteer) called me out on my smiling in one week. I tended not to smile much. People thought I was grumpy and not open. They thought me close-minded and that I didn't listen. Smiling more would boost the confidence of people around me. Smiling would help me. "Instead of 'Whistlinphil' you should be called 'Smiling Phil,'" I was told by the head of the program I work for at my church. He was kind of joking, but I took it to heart.

And taking jokes as serious statements is something I do, laboring under the belief that there is some truth (or at least real opinion) behind most jokes that are made. I started a 'Smilinphil' email account. I fully planned on using it to.

Something stopped me, though, from fully accepting the nickname, though. That thing was the truth that 'Whistlinphil' has BECOME my identity. What I wrote a couple short paragraphs above is true: names are identities, special positions, and designations. They put you in your place. They establish who you are and what you are about.

Back in the day (which is just an expression meaning here 'a long time ago in a far away land'), surnames had more meaning than they have here in America now. Names signified what you did for a living. 'Smiths' worked with metal; 'Flynts' worked with rocks ('flint stones').