Namesake

As I was looking at our previous blog, I remembered that I had put up a link of a blog about Flannery O'Connor, http://flanneryoconnor.blogspot.com/.

When we talked about the name Flannery for our unborn daughter, we were definitely influenced by the life and writings of Flannery O'Connor and the subsequent effect she had on literature and culture.

As christians, we tend to shy away from the difficult and/or ugly or try to sugar coat things in life. There is also a level of hyocrosy that tends to be present in christian culture, mostly accidentally.

O'Connor was a christian catholic writer who wrote using characters that were ugly, mean and harsh. She used them to expose that hypocrosy and ugliness. She was engaging culture but also was asking tough questions and getting people to think. She was before her time and her life ended too soon. But she is inspiring because she did alot in her short life, causing me to wonder if I'm doing all that I could/should be doing with what God gave me.

We love the name Flannery, but it is all the more meaningful because of who Flannery O'Connor was and the legacy she left us.

**And on a side note, many people often ask about Flannery's nicknames...some in our family call her Flannels, others, Flanny. I call her Lainey, after one of my favorite movie characters, Lelaina in Reality Bites. I like to call her Lainey Bug or Lainey Friend, or Lainey Beth, after her Aunt Bethany. :)