O
ne afternoon last spring Jody Barker headed off campus to meet
some new friends. Waiting for her was a trio whose members had arranged their chairs in something of a haphazard circle.
Jody knew walking in that there'd be no chair for her, and she certainly didn't need one. She floated down a corridor, turned the corner and then she sort of auto-folded her legs. She was sudden- ly kneeling at eye level with women she hadn't yet met.
Like it was her job, Jody sparked par- ticipation.
"And what's your name?" she said to one of the three.
"Cora."
She complimented Cora on having a pretty name.
"Marguerite," volunteered another.
"Well," she cooed, "I feel strange calling people by their first names."
That it felt strange does not mean that Jody is shy, for she is far from shy. It means that she was raised better than using the first names of people who are older than she is – some by 70 years. But it was Girl's Glamour Night at Life Care of Jefferson City, so Jody worked on calling new friends by first names.
JOURNEY fall 2011 17
