Name calling: Name-calling can put people down; sometimes, for a very long time.

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Sometimes, a name called to someone, will stick with them for all of their lives, causing pain for them, as which happened here, in my story. Be careful of calling people names. When John's mother was just a three-year-old girl, she had an unfortunate accident, and she dirtied her pants. Her old, cranky, Welsh grandmother was there, and she called out loudly, contemptibly to Frances, the mother, to come in and to see what this filthy little maggot has done Jocelyn, John's mother, apparently remembered this incident of name-calling of herself, for all of her long life. When she was 93, and when she was dying of cancer, a similar incident happened. She had stomach cancer, and she could no longer control her bowels then either. She had a bowel movement in her bed, and John's sister, her carer, was left to clean it all up. Jocelyn, looked sadly at her daughter, and she said, "I am really a filthy little maggot again now, aren't I, dear." This name-calling of herself, when she was only three years old had stayed with her for ninety years. John's sister told him about this event. She also mentioned how many times during her life, their mother, had mentioned this story about that cranky old Welsh Grandmother, of hers. It was often in her mind. How sad is that? What harm does name-calling really do to others, and to ourselves? Your correct name matches who you are, and a wrong name, given to you by a name-caller, does not. You can often carry this mismatch with you all of your life, if you cannot get past the non-truth of this non-name which has labeled you something, and which has stuck with you, because you do not feel that your real name really fits you, or that you were good enough to own it, not your nickname, or name- called name. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com John's mother, not long before she died, of cancer.