I Am Not A Number

Hello and Greeting's Kind One's,

Well, my name is Mario. My Dad's name was Mario, whose Dad had same name. In my Circle's of Spanish, Italian and Cuban Kinfolk, we are the Sanchez's and Sierra's and I swear I had cousins named Mario, Uncle's/Tio's named Mario, and I have a nephew in the Carolina's named Mario, too. With an intense sense, I say we may have some familiar faces or mannerism's even, but I assure you we all differ between one and another. As if from a different tribe or another.

I am beginning to feel more and more comfortable eliminating a numeral from my name. I mean, I have been a 'III', most damned near all my life. There was a period in school when I did not use it, there have been times when I use MS3, as my initials, still even after all of these years. That was something I picked up while stationed in Germany back in 1978 and '79.

While in Grade Five, my teacher Mrs. Lee, who was born in Guam, provided many of her students to be called whichever or whatever name we wished to be called. My name was Michael. No shit. I'll never forget that year with Mrs. Lee. She was not only my teacher she was my confidant. I fell in love with her and her family and we maintained contact all the way up until her crossing just a few years ago. Mrs. Lee, is the teacher who introduced me to Beethoven, with that she opened up my ears and my mind. To this very day, The Ninth Symphony is my favorite for life. I read anything and everything I could get my Boy hands on about Ludwig. I celebrate his birthday every December. No joke. My Dearest Bride and one of my Greatest Teachers ever, Mbawana, will share that this is marked on the calender every year. To know that he was Deaf when performing this symphony for the first time always amazed me. Oh, my dear Mrs. Lee, you have always been my favorite teacher...

...teacher's. We just don't have enough! And God, please bless these who teach our children today. I can admit that I loved so many and so many stuck on me and ended up loving me to deaf. Have I mentioned before that Honorable Daughter Number One is an English Teacher? And oh yes, Honey's, I was a Teacher's Boy, in fact and you see, none ever referred to me as a number.

Sometimes my skin and I feel like we are a number now. Somehow, I have learned to accept this less and more and to some degree, but I swear, I am no body's damned number. I am but a simple mixed bred mystic fellow with health inflictions that "I" still have not yet wrapped around my head.

I can share and assure you I have been referred to as a number, by word and I see these numbers on the paper work that is generated by medical staff, government officials, and representatives from different non-profit organization's. Each and every Medical Record from each and every doctor of mine has me listed by my patient number...

...my super market where shopping is a pleasure knows me and my family by a number, so does the store with the big red balls out front. Just like every store or business that we do business with.

But. I establish this, when government officials begin to handle me like a number and push off on me like a pair of dice, boundaries have to be revisited. New boundaries established perhaps. Yes. Time for me to grab some of these numbers by the balls and switch hit or something, because this numbers game is not the Lotto for me. Okay?

I am who I am and I am not your number.