passing along secrets..........

     As a child, I became intent on learning the names of everything, from cars (there was a Chevrolet going by; our car was a Ford) to the fact that the tree in our front yard was an oak.  I was fascinated by the revelation that a car could have many names—it could also be a Buick or a Pontiac or a Chrysler.  Our tree was an oak, but the tree in our neighbors' yard was a maple.  They looked the same to me, but they had different names, and for a while it seemed that every individual tree must have its own name, which would be a lot to remember.

     I went so far as to believe that my parents, in giving me all those names, were passing along secrets.  Other people were unaware of the names within the names.  The knew the work "tree" but only my parents and I were able to call this tree oak and that tree maple.  I felt like an insider, a secret comrade to trees and cars, birds and flowers, and shoes and books. 

-Michael Cunningham, Unsayable: A Life in Writing

thanks David