September 07th, 2018

I overheard someone the other day who was talking on their cell phone in a very public place. I was not eavesdropping. I couldn't NOT hear.  And they said one thing that just broke my heart. With tremendous weight to the sentences he said, "It doesn't matter, nothing matters. I don't care."  Holy cats.  I am of a completely different train of thought.  I believe that everything matters and especially us. We matter.

None of us are invisible in this world. Did you ever give much thought to how very many things there are that represent you?   I mean each of us, specifically and individually.  It's a lot!

First of all, our names.  Technically, my name is Sandra Faye Hurley Graham Humphreys.  The full name I was given at birth, plus my first married name then my current married name.  Tim would prefer to say and my LAST married name but you know what I mean.  If I google just Sam Humphreys a ton of people show up. Pages and pages and pages before you ever get to the Sam Humphreys that is me and if it wasn't for this blog, it would take even longer.  I think the first Sam Humphreys that shows up is an Australian Soccer Player.    But if you type in Sandra Faye Humphreys I show up pretty quickly.  Just an address thing, probably the white pages for my town.  Any combination of those names is me but apparently it's also a lot of other people.

Now if you put my birthdate with it, we get a little more specific.  Up pops  facebook pages for everyone with my name and birthdate.  Look at that.  Now I am absolutely not the only person in the the world born on July 9th 1953.  I share that day with a ton of people. Among them a cosmonaut, an author and a choreographer.  But it does help narrow the field down.

Then of course there is my address.  That's it in the photo above. 344 Bayshore Dr.  I am the ONLY Sam Humphreys living at this address. Very specific.  We have now narrowed the field down to one. Just me.

And still there are so many other numbers that represent me.  My phone numbers, both the house number and my cell number.  My social security number of course.  In theory anyway, I am the only person ever on the planet to have the specific S.S. number forever and ever amen. 

Bank account numbers, credit card numbers, library card number. All of those paths lead directly to me. No the soccer player in Australia or the cosmonaut in Russia, just me.  I have patient ID numbers at every doc and dentist office I have ever gone to and every pharmacy I've have ever gotten a prescription filled at.  

I had a student ID number at both of the colleges I attended and account numbers for every service we are provided:  water, garbage pick up, electric and so forth.  I had employee ID numbers for payroll purposes at every job I've ever had and volunteer ID numbers for all of the volunteer positions I've held over the years.

Do not get me started on passwords.  There are so many passwords that are specific to me that if I dared to give it more than a seconds thought I would just throw my hands in the air and give up entirely.  As I say, we are not invisible even if we wanted to be.

And then there if filial connections.  I am Dot and Larry's Daughter, Tim's wife, Hurley, Corbin and Thatcher's Mother, Jessie, Julie and Rachel's Mother-in-law.  I am Joy's sister,  Carrie and Stacy's aunt and Kay, Ken, Carol, Bill and Annette's cousin. I am Shorty and Leatha's niece. 

(Side note here:  My mother was born and raised in a teensy little bitty town on the coast of Maine.  Every summer when we showed up again, at some point, someone would point at me and say (in a deep Maine drawl), "Aren't you little Dottie' Howard's girl?"   Yessir I am.)

I'm my ESL students' teacher.  I am that lady at the museum.    I'm that nice lady down the street.   And that blonde lady with the blue mat at Pilates class.

Once upon a time I was that lady who teaches the classes at the audiology office.  At another point in my life I was the lady who co-chairs the Task Force.  At other times I was the voice on the other end of the phone at a Hospice and at an Oncology Unit.

My goodness, the list goes on and on, doesn't it.  For each of us!  And in every single one of those connections, I interacted with people. Which means that in some way, I affected their lives.  And they affected mine. I am who I am because of all the people I've known, all the places I've been and all the things I have done.

If ever in your life for one minute you believe that you haven't accomplished anything and that you are just a nameless, faceless number, please let me assure you that you mistaken.  You have made a difference just by existing.  You are the only one of you to ever occupy space on this planet. You are the only one of you that ever will.  You have reached people, you have touched their hearts and you have made a difference.  Every place you have been, everything you have done represents who you are.

We all matter.