Consistency is key, and other clichés

Name change, being away and thinking about routine

Dear readers,

Apologies for my radio silence last month, I find that if I have to think too hard about what I’m going to write on here, I probably shouldn’t write at all. I want this to feel natural rather than stressed or forced so, I took some time away.

In that time, I have also changed the name of this Substack to butterdish. If you don’t care how I came to the new name, scroll on. I thought the last name, which contained ten, yes ten, syllables was a bit too dull and lacking energy. Since I started on Substack, I’ve brought food into most of my posts. Because so much of my time and energy is invested in food, it’s natural for me to approach thinking about life, through thinking about food. I quickly had a look around the kitchen and I spotted our see-through glass butter dish and immediately found an inspiration for the name for the page. I love butter dishes because they are very cute objects, I love lifting the lid from the butter and replacing it back when I’m done; it’s cute. They also have this kind of diva quality that the rest of the dishes don’t have. I don’t really know how to describe it but the way the butter has it’s own dish, it’s so “I want to be alone, don’t bother me. I’m busy” energy, which I admire.

So welcome to, butterdish.

Choosing names for things can be quite stressful. You want it to sound right, feel right, be accepted and enjoyed by others. Growing up with an Irish name, I used to detest how different it was. I used to wish my name was more generic. As I grew older, that all changed and I absolutely love having my name, I love finding ways for people to understand it in relation to English so I pick English words it rhymes with and let people enjoy realising how it’s meant to be said. The amount of times I’ve said my name for someone to reply, “who?” is hilarious. The name sparks confusion because to people who aren’t Irish, it’s unusual. Although, throughout the years, I’ve had a few online alias’ which some people would prefer to call me through. I love so much when someone would come up and say “hey, you’re crispy lettuce”, and I would smile and say “yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you, (name)”. Or when I had a DJ name for a bit people would know me through that but not my actual name. Or even when I had a meme page and people called me, Memer instead of my actual name. Which I loved. Throughout all of those experiences, I learned a lot about the transience of names. A name isn’t necessarily an inherent, unmoving, resistant-to-change thing. Names are just an easy way to identify people and things so we can communicate better. Writers, artists, musicians, actors all take on new names, new alias’ to describe art that they have made but maybe comes from an energy that needs a different name. Or creating a secondary identity so you can remain incognito or there’s people that want to change their name so they can take control of their identity in the world. It’s fun to change and become something different, and there is consistency in that, constant change.

There exists that idiom: “the only constant is change” (plus ça change), cliché as it is, there remains a lot of truth in it. We often hear, consistency is key, throughout life. If we work hard and stay on top of things, in other words be consistent, life should be easier and we can achieve great things. Also true. So if I stay consistent with change, everything will be OK? I’ve been thinking about how much change I’ve had in my life, there’s been a lot of moving, changing my mind, going back on myself, choosing a different path, regretting that, going down another way, trying this road, red light, road block, amber light, green light, ran out of petrol, back on the road, in the hard shoulder, out of the car, going for a walk, back in the car, engine broken, needs a service. Still on the road. Still on the road. What to do now?

Facing confusion and changing my mind has been the most consistent thing I’ve done in life I think, and technically, that’s a good thing? If “consistency is key”, then I am consistent and if “the only constant is change”, then I’m doing something right. Right? Or maybe the dog’s chasing it’s own tail again and the snake is eating it…

I’ve been thinking about how confusion defines this generation. Living through so much intense change, from technology to politics, and wondering how did we make it to this time in the story? Who are all these people, and what on earth does it all mean? It can be troubling for sure, but it’s also so miraculous and beautiful that thinking about it all too much ruins it for me. When you think back to previous generations, they were confused too, everyone is just as f*cking confused as you are. Think back to the Dark Ages, or the Medieval period, when everyone forgot major advancements because of the fall of the Roman Empire, things lost control and the world went into darkness. This is of course an overly simplistic iteration of the Dark Ages because a lot of amazing things happened during those times like the birth of modern chemistry (although, probably not in accordance with our current ethical principles). My point is I fear that we are entering into a new dark age whereby, technology really starts to isolate people and we forget how to communicate with each other. Yet, I’m sure when the printing press came out, people were pretty freaked out about that too. Change inspires fear, change ignites grows, change will happen regardless.

On a very basic level, and contradicting everything I have just said, having a routine is the way to go. Good luck!