When I launched this little baby a year and a half ago, I wondered if I had anything to say. Clearly that hasn't been an issue. Maybe the opposite's been the case on a few occasions. Maybe I've had a bit too much to say.
(My niece Amelia and me...this has definitely been one of the highlights of my tea journey)
A few of you have commented on the fact that I write about everything and nothing. That the connection to tea is sometimes tenuous at best. That's been much more intentional than you might think. I love tea. I love drinking it. I love writing about it. I love having people over and serving it.
I love luring non-teadrinkers over to the leaf side. But you know that.
The thing is that as much as I love all those things, they're somehow not enough. I have to write about other things, and I love to find that link to tea. It's often a kind of a puzzle to find the connection. I like to think I find it more often than I don't.
So, I'd like to use this occasion to explain the origin of the name lahikmajoe. It's a convoluted story, but I'll try to be concise.
My grandmother was a Comanche Indian. Because she saw plenty of discrimination in her surroundings, she wanted her children to have better opportunities. She gave each of her seven sons very anglo sounding names.
The way the two names she thought sounded quite classy went together were borderline comical, and the one she paired with Kenneth was downright embarrassing. It won't even be repeated here. I was given my father's name, and not only Kenneth but the other one, as well. It began with the letter 'L', and I loathed it from as far back as I can remember.
So when I was a bit older, I started to imagine what my grandmother might have named me had she gone with an Indian name. The one I came up with was lahikma. The 'joe' part came later.
I'm sure I could have an easier to explain web identity, but this one's very personal and a bit quirky and actually fits me perfectly. If you met me in person, I can say with certainty that you'd chuckle to yourself, 'My goodness, he really is a lahikmajoe'.
