To be a Pish.
I'm writing on my new blog every day for the next thirty days. This is the first one.An acting teacher told me recently I should change my last name. Pish. She said it's British slang for "to pee." I already knew that - thanks Google. This completely confirmed all of the misgivings I had about my last name. It's hard to confidently stride out into the acting world with "pee" on my face. An actor needs a solid name to build a good career. But doesn't the man make the name?
A side-note. A fascinating thing happened when my acting teacher said this to me: more people were offended on my behalf than I was. It was the same compulsion that ruins Facebook for me with scores of "opinions." People want to be good; people want other people to see they're good; but their motivation to initiate change usually begins and ends at the keyboard. It's actually a phenomenon of the internet age. Being aware of all the injustice around us makes people feel the need to have their say on it. I don't have that need. I just want to pay attention to me and mine. I'd rather live my life like my Grandpa Pish did - if it doesn't hurt my family or my farm, I don't know about it. And when I decide to really help a cause or fight for something, you better be ready because I'm not going to stop until I actually change something. I won't just post a link to someone else's article.Whether I liked it or not, I was surrounded by a swarm of opinions, but all I saw was the useful information that my acting teacher told me.
The Pish last name derives from the Eastern European word "pis," which means writer. Not a bad name for a storyteller. But. Most people don't know this. Most people know Google.Right before I started writing this, I saw someone type my name in an e-mail as "Andrew P," and I kind of like that. I think it's kind of cool to only have a letter. But now that I'm thinking about it, in saying "Andrew P," we might have an even closer association with "pee." Lord Almighty, I never thought I'd worry this much about pee.But I don't think I have to distance myself from pee. The Pish name wasn't built on pee. The Pish name was built on hard work. The Pish name was forged in the Czech Republic. The Pish name was tested on the journey to Texas. Now the Pish name is being proven with every person who's born with it in America. I have it. I'm trying to make it even better. I want it to mean even more. I don't think I'm going to change my last name.