בִּנְיָמִין
Ben Yamin
Benjamin
The boy who grew up
on the Right Side.
At The Right Hand.
Of everything
and everyone.
“the perfect name for any parents’ little buddy.”
Little Buddy
Benjie
Benj
Beej
Man, that kid was
Handy.
Still is.
Some rabbinic traditions
present a Benjamin
who died without sin.
Sinless.
One of Four to manage that
in some Ancient Texts.
Benjie tried that.
Oh, Little Buddy…
It doesn’t work.
For anyone.
Live into your name!
Occupy…
The place of honor
The place of status
Right next to the proud parent.
It was given to you.
And Benjamin…
There is
Nothing
for You
To Earn.
And last but not least, our (optional) prompt for the day. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that delves into the meaning of your first or last name. Looking for inspiration? Take a look at this poem by Mark Wunderlich, appropriately titled “Wunderlich.”
defying atrophy 
Some of those Benjaminites got crazy in Judges 😜
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Oh yeah. Crazy goes with the name for sure.
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‘Carrie’ means ‘free man.’ But it can also mean ‘joy’ when it’s short for Carlotta, which is believed to be how it became popular in the US. Ironic.
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I love good irony.
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Like me, perhaps you need to learn to “live into your name”?
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Hard to be ‘free’ or have joy in a wheelchair and a pandemic
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Freedom and joy are a state of mind, not constrained to our physical limitations. I know that sounds a bit trite and patronizing, but it’s SO, SO true:
“The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
John Milton – Paradise Lost
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I taught “Paradise Lost,” and I had my kids write down that quote. But the title uses ‘lost’ and that’s how I feel most of the time in the past year.
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