May I See Some ID Please?

There are 309,114,891 people in the United States of America. If everyone in the U.S. lined up single file, the line would stretch around the Earth almost 7 times. That's a lot of people.

The U.S. Census Bureau statistics tell us that there are at least 151,671 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use in the United States. Some names are more common than others.

http://howmanyofme.com/search/

I found, as the hottest search on Google, “How many people have my name.” This was a thought provoking topic, so I took a look. After clicking on it, Google displayed several news and blog links related to this search. However, all the links they showed seemed to have little or nothing to do with this subject. Trust me, I opened half a dozen, looking for the common thread and found none, whatsoever.

Considering this had to do with identifying myself with others, it struck me funny how elusive this subject was. When I started searching with these key words, I found the site above. I was thrilled to discover that, according to the site there are supposedly only 12 other Tim Cotes running around the US. I sense a kinship to my unknown brothers and feel special and unique, like one of the 12 apostles.

Now, my Dad’s hometown, Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada has 30 pages of Cotes in a 45 page telephone book, I wonder if they’re teeming with Tims?

Is the thrill I experienced the same thrill some people get from passionately following “their” baseball or football team?

Is this the thrill some get from watching soaps or reality shows? Do they sense a connection that they identify with?

Though I laughed out loud at the TV sitcom, “Seinfeld”, the problem was that I didn’t want to identify myself with those characters. They weren’t very sympathetic characters, though true to life, nonetheless.

How we identify, and with what, shows us who we are and helps mold us into who we’ll become.

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. “
Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night