Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

I had a press agent who once told me that I was crazy to call myself Lighting Rod instead of using my real name Clayton Barry January.

What more perfect name for a poet than Clayton Barry January?
When you say it,
It's perfect iambic quatrameter
or in musical terms, a perfect 4/4 measure of dotted eighths and sixteenths

I've got nothing against my given name, I've always liked it really. But in my youth, I was visited with a vision. I'm not trying to get all Mormon on you here. But I had a vision, more like the American Indian naming ritual. It's a ceremony where you take your identity, state who you are. From that time I have presented myself as Lightning Rod.

If you want to call me Clay, I don't mind. 'Hey You' will even work. But I mainly answer to Lrod. When I talk to myself, I address myself as Lightning Rod.

What's in a name?
Does it matter to you how you are addressed?
What do you like to be called?

(I know 'babe' and 'sweetie' and 'babycakes' etc don't count as anything but dismissives)

"... not trying to get all Mormon on you." Ha! Was there a mysterious light beam that beamed into your room? I think one of my ancestors had a similar experience after reading the New Testament.. "Nazarenus"... latin for "of Nazareth", or so I've been told.. changed the name from Faust, which means the devil or something.
What do I like to be called? Mark will do. 'mnaz' was sturdy. The "Nazz" I'm not so sure about-- doesn't seem to fit my life-affirming brooding dark sunshine. 'Babycakes' might have potential.

Yes, it was something like a beam of light
but more precisely, a bolt of lightning

It was a yogic vision
I was standing on my head
in my attic garrett shaped like a pyramid
there was a texas thunderstorm

Lighting stuck and I felt it enter through my feet
it exited my head and I was unharmed
I was meditating
I was relaxed
I offered no resistance
the lightning went right though me
only leaving the realization
that I was Lightning Rod

it was a pretty profound experience
so, I had to change my name

You were standing on your head in your attic garrett shaped like a pyramid in a Texas thunderstorm, though the thunderheads were yet far off when you slipped into deep meditation. Either that or you're a storm chaser. Of course time, or timing, has little to do with meditation. Either way it seems I may have misunderstood your name. I misunderstand mine too.

Yes, Nazz
Understanding your name is important
whether they are given names or names that you choose

I think that chosen names are more important
they tell you more about what a person knows about himself
Crazy Horse
Sitting Bull
Howling Wolf
Kid Rock
Nazz (mnaz is wonderfully enigmatic too)
Lightning Rod

they are names that we and the universe co-author