Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Super-random thought
Was reading something about a notable family that went in for numbering its sons and grandsons.
Realized something: you often see F. Preston Southwick II and F. Preston Southwick III, and occasionally an F. Preston Southwick IV. But you almost never see a reference to an active and living F. Preston Southwick I.
Why? Fairly obvious when you think about it. F. Preston Southwick [default] doesn't know he's a First when he's young. When he has a son and burdens the son with a repeated name, the son becomes Jr and [default] becomes Sr. But Sr doesn't actually become the First until Jr proceeds to burden his own son with a repeated name.
It's a little like 'quantum entanglement'. These changes in [default]'s name happen without any effort on his part, at the exact same moment when a descendant is named. The change from Sr to I may even happen without his knowledge. By that time he's fairly old, so his activities aren't likely to make as much news, for as many years, as the activities of II and III. Thus [default] has a three-part life: born as [default], then turns to Sr, then turns to I. His son has a two-part life: born as Jr, then turns to II. But his grandson gets to be III from birth to death.
¶ 8:26 AM 
