Identity

The other day a funny thing happened to me. I was leaving my office suite for a meeting and was, as usual, a moment or two late. As I was steaming down the hallway towards the meeting, I heard someone behind me bellow, "Dean! Dean! Dean!" After about the fifth time, I realized that the person wasn't looking to stop someone named Dean but rather was trying to call the Dean. In this case, the dean was not Dean but the dean was me.

I laughed out loud while waiting for the student, who just wanted the dean's signature on a form. But in the the past few days it has made me think of identity and name calling. My name is Jason, and seldom do I ever mention an honorific or earned title like dean or doctor or professor or even "mister." So it did surprise me to hear me called like a cow for dinner as "dean."

It did me think about titles and identity. Do I need to be called dean to be a dean, or professor instead of Jason to be a professor? I am not sure. Titles do define the relationship though I do feel that is for the better and for the worse. Maybe lines do need to be tightly drawn, and you do need to be the dean or doctor or pastor or mister or Ms or whatever just so that relationship is clear, defined, and that it becomes harder to cross that line. Maybe I would be more sure of myself or more certain of my role and of boundaries if if I kept that title in front of my name and in front of relationships, however defined.

I have rationalized my stance, correctly or not, in this way. If I need to wear a suit or for that matter, use a title to have people recognize that I am the dean and that I need and deserve the respect and those lines of deference or distance, than I might be in trouble already. It seems a ready escape to say, not unlike many of our parents, it is so/do this because I am the Mom/Dad/teacher/dean.

So I answer my phone with "this is Jason," and while I might list my title on my email tag, I think that I remain "Jason" for the most part. I will continue to be a bit surprised when people chase me down the hall trying to get "Dean" to stop. And I think that this is largely a good thing.