A Name is Just an E-mail Address with Ancestory

Over the years we have received an almost universal query when we give our e-mail address: huh?

It has suffered the slings and arrows of derision... as well as blank stares... and cursors that won't cooperate (She says over the phone, "That's "B" "E"?--"NO! "T, as in tough, not "B" as in bodacious!" I reply.) But once you know our e-mail address, you know our e-mail address.
We've had this address for over 17 years now, and although our host servers have changed, every time we've ever asked for this address it's been granted immediately. (I know few of you believe that.) So why change? Long-time e-mail friends have come to expect the non-sensical, sequential, but middling address to be stuck forever in their contacts, and which they have to block as junk mail.

***Historical Note***When first choosing e-mail addresses we were advised that they were to be kept anonymous and opaque so that the technology could not infiltrate your life. Twitter that!

So the "teal" comes from the color of a car we had, and my favorite color, especially when the blue is highlighted in it. It's also my favorite duck...I'm not kidding, I have a favorite species of duck, and if you've ever eaten teal as opposed to other ducks, you will know why...both the green-wing and blue-wing (they are the common ones around our area) are beautiful creations of God. So...color...duck...beauty...first part done.

The "456" is because "123" seemed presumptuous. "789" seemed defeatist, and we're theologians...and theologians always have a hard time with "first" and "last." I mean, the last are first, and the first are last, but sometimes when you're last, it seems like first, and sometimes when you're first you're so lonely as to be last...and Jesus never mentions the middle. So...we played it safe. "456" might not get the best seats, but we won't be in Standing Room Only either. (Granted, there's always a chance for an obstructed view up there in heaven, but you tend to get more leg room with those seats, and you're usually closer to the bathrooms...) Second part done.

And there you have it: teal456@... is our address. And to all our friends who have by-passed decent drinking games in order to ponder what the TEAL "realy means"...it's just a color...or a duck...it does not stand for "Theologian Extrodinaire At Leisure," nor "Theology Excepted, Alcohol Lives!" nor my personal favorite, e-mailed back to me years ago by a mortgage banker who was Jewish and had to type in my mortage application the place I worked (Resurrection) 1000 times, and every time he mistyped it, explaining that the word is not familiar to him... who suggested "Torah Enough. AL"
(For those wondering, I took "AL" to be a shortening of God's name from El Shaddai...either that or it's God's nickname on the bowling team...)

E-mail addresses, like the names we carry, all come from somewhere, and it's not so surprising that some of them are a bit wacked here and there...what is surprising is that God knows them all...whether colors, ducks, mortgage bankers or friends, God calls all of us by name.