Alethea

Why did I change my name to Alethea?

Every name I have had in my 62 years of living was given to me and not claimed by me.  I like my name Susan Morgan but I am stepping into a larger aspect of myself now and Alethea is better suited.

The name Alethea means to remember things we forgot long ago. I think this is the type of inspired thinking that could benefit all of humanity.  We would do well to remember who we truly are, and what we are capable of. The Hero that resides in each and everyone of us is waiting to spring into action.

Years ago when I was in my late teens my boyfriend (and later husband) and I lived in San Diego for a year.  John was taking a college plastics course that was normally two years and we were cramming it into one. I say we, because though I also went to school forty hours a week and worked at a local movie theatre twenty hours a week, I also typed all of Johns college papers for him on our electric, turquoise colored, Smith Corona typewriter.  This was before personal computers and internet.  If I made a mistake typing I could cover it up with a quick application of ‘white out’ from the mangled brush that was in the jar.  All ‘white out jars’ always came with a pre mangled brush to apply the white paint that needed to be so delicately placed over an error so as not to be noticed. If there was more than one mistake in the typing of the paper, the whole sheet got tossed and I started over from scratch.  This was an action requiring patience and tenacity.

This has everything to do with my name Alethea so stick with me on this.

John got straight A’s for the first time in his life, in no small part due to my help and finished his year with a degree in Plastics.We moved to a very small town outside of the small town Mystic, Connecticut.  John was looking for work and I am waitressing which was always lucrative for me in my teens and early 20’s.

John ( only 23 ) is suddenly offered two choices. One is a shoe -in financially speaking and one is almost impossible and fraught with almost guaranteed failure or worse.

The first offer was to set up and manufacture carbon fiber golf clubs. This is about 1978 -79. John was interested very much in doing this and being at the forefront of carbon fiber technology. This was as close to guaranteed money as you could get, plus it was backed by a man who had plenty of resources.

The second, and rather random offer, was for John to build a 27’ racing yacht. Both offers came in within a day of each other.  John left the decision up to me which one to choose.

I chose the impossible one.  Build the effen racing yacht.

John had an idea that he could build it using his new found skills in carbon fiber technology ( knowledge acquired not from the college by the way but by working at a hole in the wall place in San Diego making carbon fiber fishing rods.  The inventor of these was brilliant but not a good business man or visionary.  John was all three; a visionary, a good business man and brilliant.)

The risks were enormous, starting with the fact that to build a 27’ racing yacht requires a lot of money.  If the boat failed and was dog slow, a lot of money would be lost and the embarrassment level in this small town could be unbearable. The owner of the boat project had plenty of resources so that helped soften that concern.

The second and bigger concern was that John wanted to build it using the same technology that he used making skinny little fishing rods.  No boat had been built using the technology the way he wanted to use it and he was pioneering a new product (boat), new technology and new processes all rolled into one.  The possibility of the boat tweaking and literally shearing in half was high.  It was dangerous and the stakes were high including possible loss of life on the open sea.

John built the boat over the course of almost a year. We started the business naming it Hi-Tech Boats and bought a used wooden desk. That was it. Over the course of that year we hired 20 people, had a secretary or two and a full scale boat building business; one step at at time.

The boat was launched and much to everyones surprise, including ours she, won!  She went on to win every race she was entered into!  She caught the eye of international marine architects and other yacht owners, and men were clamoring to work with John and the new technology he created.  Many boats were to be built over the next decade and most all of them were winning boats.

This first boat and prototype was named Alethea.

Little did we know, that while we were working our butts off and pouring everything we had into this project, the owner funding it only wanted a tax write off.  He didn’t expect the boat to do anything nor did he really care.  Its a good thing we didn’t know that then.

So now I circle back to naming myself Alethea.

I want my new name to inspire you to remember the best version of who you are and can be. 

I want you to work your butt of giving life everything you got, even though it appears the game is rigged against us. 

Because maybe, just like the racing yacht Alethea, you and I and all of humanity will win the race even if the people running the show don’t care one bit. 

We Can Win and claim our humanity back and bring about a world that everyone feels good to call home.