[for my CNF group]

I could’ve been a Joseph, Joe, or Joey. Or Thomas, Tom, or Tommy. Some of those are my Dad’s names, four in fact. You might try to guess which ones.

He was named after his father, who went by Joe. And when his son was born, he became Joseph Thomas Downs, Sr.

My Dad didn’t want to make me a third.

I was named after a friend of theirs, David Andrew. So my names could be flipped. Then I’d be DAD instead of ADD or 3-D. I am real!

I used to use Howard W. Campbell as a pen name after the accidental Nazi propagandist of Vonnegut’s haunting Mother Night. That was the first book I truly loved.

But if I had to choose my own name, a different name, I’d want to be named after a hero, like Oscar Romero. But then I might just be ODD.

OK, I think I’ve got it.

A modern prophet and my North Star. A man of integrity, hope, and unbending joy. Half my size but twice my courage. If I were to choose another name, it would have to be Desmond. Dez. Dezzy. I’d take them all to have one bit of his grace.