Le JEU

I was at my desk when fellow consultant Scott stopped by to discuss a few work matters. As he was leaving he noticed my canvas work bag. Embroidered on the bag are my initials: “JEU”.

“Do you know what your initials mean in French?” he asked.

Having taken 5 years of French in high school and college, I replied that I did.

“It means ‘game’.”

“Sure. It also means ‘play’,” he said before wandering off.

That was kind of a revelation to me. While “game” was a minorly interesting definition, there wasn’t really any connotation for me. “Play” was much more interesting. Just for fun I looked up le jeu to see the definition. My two favorites are:

en jeu

in play (literally and figuratively)

par jeu

for fun

A slight tangent: I believe in the importance of naming well. Biblically speaking, there are many examples of God changing the names of his followers based on their relationship with him. Abraham, Jacob, and Peter are a few examples. Even God himself has many names, each revealing a small part of his nature. I believe that there is power in names. So the coincidental association between my initials and “play” has officially been made.

What’s the takeaway? Over the last few years, I’ve grown too serious about the things that aren’t worth it. I got my undies in a twist over insignificant things instead of laughing it off and seeing the humor in the situation. Perhaps its part of getting older and having more responsibility. Whatever the case, I’ve probably been taking the wrong approach.

Being playful and lighthearted about situations is the definition of joy - peace beyond circumstances.

I’m going to be more playful.

2 Comments

1. Michelle Uhri said:

   Cool…I love the way you look at the world! You are cool (except when you’re a dork). Have fun playing!

   January 24th, 2007 at 10:04 am
2. John Edward Uhri said:

   I have felt for years that I was some one special because of the name
   UHRI. Mostly because it had few letters and everone asked how do you speal Uhri. Then I Googled it and found out that in the last 68 years the uhri family has grown from the few that I new as a child to many.
   I also found that a person from africa took my compet name Who knows why except that some one must have told him the IRS has a hard time getting to the U to audit. NOT TRUE I do still feel spiecal because the Uhries are a great family

   John

   June 2nd, 2007 at 9:09 am

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