An ideal world

The other day, I was having a conversation with some friends and we got on the topic of name mispronunciations and spellings. My name isn't a super common one*, so growing up I usually knew that it would get misprounounced.** And probably mispelled. But I never had to spell my last name, because back in the day, when you watched TV, you HAD to sit through commercials. And Reynolds Wrap had commercials and so everyone saw how Reynolds was spelled, and that made it pretty easy. People heard my name, and they knew how to spell it. 

And even if they didn't know how to spell my name, I could usually say, "like in Fur Elise, by Beethoven"*** and they knew what I was talking about. 

But not anymore. Fewer and fewer people know what the heck song I'm talking about, and no one is seeing Reynolds Wrap commercials, so now, I end up spelling out both my names. 

Anyway, we're having this conversation, and I'm lamenting the world where I have to spell my first and last name out, when I used to not have to do that, and not for the first time, I realized what a great world it would be if the problem I were discussing was really the worst thing going on.

And so, for all of you, I wish for a world where the worst problem we have to deal with is name misspellings. I totally want to live in that world. 

*Although, the number of people I meet who know someone with my name as either a first or middle name is really high. And I have a good friend with my name. But we spell it differently. There's like, 18 different ways to spell my name. But I claim that mine is the original--unless you can find a spelling that pre-dates Beethoven.

**Winner of mispronunciations: Elsie. Totally understandable. On my first day of junior high, I tallied how many teachers called me Elsie and how many called me Elise. I think it was 4-3. 

***Like I say, I have the original spelling.