What's In A Name?

When I was a little girl, I didn’t like my name---Esther. It didn’t fit. I wanted a cute name. Other little girls had cute names. My best friend was named Mary Lou.  Now, that’s cute! She had big blue eyes and curly hair and was named Mary Lou.

 I had brown eyes and straight hair and one ear that stuck out on one side of my straight hair head. I didn’t know any other little girls with my name, but several children told me that they had an “Aunt Esther.” It seemed to me that everyone had an old Aunt Esther who had certainly never been a little girl.

 On my report card from Kindergarten, the teacher wrote: 

“Esther is a bad rester.” 

Resting was never an activity at which I excelled. I am sure that she wrote on my friend’s report card:

“In my class I will never rue, teaching lovely Mary Lou.”

Now that I am a grown-up, I have improved my resting skills. Along the way, I also became an Aunt Esther. Oh, crap! Who made me the grown up?

 Esther Blumenfeld (from a reclining position)