About

I’m just a guy. My name is Paul, which is derived from the Latin meaning “small”. But I’m not small, I’m both big and tall. So that’s irony for you I guess.

Thanks to the Apostle St. Paul (who wrote most of the letters that make up the New Testament), “Paul” is a pretty common name. Variants occur in every European language: in Spanish, it’s Pablo, Paolo in Italian; Paulino, and Paulo are Portuguese; Pal, Poul are Scandinavian; Paulusis is Latin; in Slavic Pavlik, or Pavlo; Pavel is Russian;  Paulson is Dutch, and Scandinavian.

Famous Pauls include Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles and Wings; Artists Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso; actors Paul Newman, Paul Bettany; Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere; musician Paul Simon; hockey player Pavel Bure; American mythological character Paul Bunyon; and the greatest college football coach ever–Paul “Bear” Bryant. Six of the 263 men who have served as Pope have taken the name Paul (or rather Paulus) and an additional two have taken Paul as part of their name.

Paul has 26 variant forms: Havel, Paavo, Pablo, Pal, Paolo, Pasha, Pauel, Pauli, Paulie, Paulin, Paulino, Paulinus, Paulo, Paulos, Paulsen, Paulson, Paulus, Pauly, Pavel, Pavle, Pavlik, Pavlo, Pawel, Pol, Poll and Poul.

I’ve never really liked my name. Since my first name has one syllable and my last name has one syllable, neither lends itself to a nickname. The only way to get a nickname out of Paul is to add a word that rhymes with it (ball, awl, small, tall, fall, wall, etc) or lengthen it to something like Pauly. I detest both of those options. I had a friend who called me Paula once..Once! When I went to college I though I’d go by my middle name, which has two syllables and can be shortened to something cool, but I was afraid I would never get used to having to answer to a different name, so I just let it go.

C. S. Lewis hated his name (Clive Staples), so one day when he was a child, he announced to his family that his name was Jack and everyone was to call him Jack in the future. And so everyone did. If I had known that story, people would be calling me Griff today. Ah well.

I have six college degrees (really), and yes, that does make me smarter than you. Not really–if I learned nothing else getting all these degrees, it’s that a college degree is not a sign of intelligence. It’s a sign of your ability to work toward a goal. I’ve known plenty of people with college degrees–even some from Ivy League schools–who are dumb as a box of hammers and not nearly as useful.

Having six degrees sounds impressive, but when you consider that I got four of them more-or-less by accident, it becomes less so. I have two Associates degrees from a Junior College (now it’s a Community College). I was taking classes for a couple of years while I decided which college I wanted to go to and what I wanted to major in when at the end of my fifth quarter I got a phone call from someone alleging to be my advisor who told me that I was 15 hours (3 classes) away from graduating. I could take an additional language course and two electives and get an AA in Liberal Arts (a euphemism for “undecided”), or I could take a lab science, a math, and an elective and get an AS in Liberal Arts. I hadn’t planned on actually graduating from this JuCo at all. I was just going to transfer the credits to a four year college at the end of the next quarter, but I was curious. I asked if, since in either scenario I had to take three classes to graduate,  I took another foreign language class, and lab science course, and another math, would I get both degrees? The answer? Yes. So that’s what I did. Two degrees for the price of one. I don’t think they let you do that anymore.

I went on to get a BS and an MS in Counseling and Guidance (you can’t get a BS in Counseling anymore either). I have one observation about people taking Counseling degrees: a majority of those who are not teachers desperate to get out of the classroom are taking Counseling classes in lieu of actually going to counseling. I worked in public mental health for four years, so I know whereof I speak.

After doing a little of this (counseling), and a little of that (information technology), and a lot of the other (acting in community theatre) I got a job at my undergrad alma mater. One of the benefits they give to make up for the incredibly low pay is free tuition and release time to take one class during the day (you can take classes at night to, but the offerings are limited). So I started taking some English literature classes. One day I realized that if I took (yet) another Math, a couple of Spanish classes, and a Health and Wellness course, I could get a second Bachelor’s degree–a BA in English. So I did. Some of my professors encouraged me to continue (apparently adult students are nice to have in class), so I did, and I finished an MA in English a couple of years later.

So there you have it. Six college degrees, four of them I sort of stumbled onto, and three of them I didn’t pay (much) for. I’ve often though about going on and getting a PhD, but I’ve got three kids and a mortgage. I don’t know where I would find the time to do the work.

So that’s me in a nutshell. At least it’s enough to start with. I am interested in life, the universe, and everything, so as you read this blog, you will get a feel for what else there is. And if you want to know something specific, you can ask. I might not tell you, but you can ask.