One of my two pens is out of ink, and I've been looking all over for my other pen. I was writing about the differences between people, places, and things with the same name. We humans are remarkable that we can distinguish among them.
I would have started with people. My girlfriend's name is Onyx, and Onyx is the only Onyx I have ever met, so I can't compare her to another Onyx. I could compare her to my last girlfriend, but that's not what I'm after here. I have way too many friends named John. There's John Amato, John Devers, John Edison, John Figueroa, John Hines, John Rodriguez, and John Vanucci. I wouldn't know which two to compare, and if I did, the other five would be offended that I didn't compare them. Come to think of it, the two I'd compare might be pretty upset too. I know only two Steves, Steve Jennings and Steve Wolfson, but their likenesses are far more interesting than their differences. Maybe I'll write about those similarities some other time. And I know two Kims, Kim O'Dell, a man, and Kim Savage, a woman. I'm not in an emotional or intellectual (or political, come to think of it) place where I can describe the differences between a man and a woman except for the obvious biological aspects.
I wanted to compare two Blue Lagoons, the one in Comino, Malta and the one in Grindavik, Iceland. They are entirely different aquatic experiences. And the differences between Broadway in Nashville and Broadway in New York, which are quite different in magnitude and culture. I cannot say much about differences between Georgia in the United States and Georgia in Europe, because I have been to the state but not the country. I could say a thing or two about Hollywood in California and Hollywood in Florida, but why bother? However, I would enjoy writing about the differences between Neptune, New Jersey and the planet Neptune, even though I have not been to the planet, but there's a story there, only I can't find the other pen.
As for differences in similarly named things, I am moving too far to the obvious. I could write about the differences between the bow to be tied and the bow of a ship, or the bat to be swung and the bat that flies, or the trunk that stores clothes or the trunk of an elephant, but I'm not writing to first graders. On the other hand, writing about the differences between the cell that a prisoner lives in and the cell that's the smallest unit of an organism would be interesting, I suppose.
Then you have confused nomenclature. Like Madison the person and Madison, Wisconsin, the place. Or Aurora the person and aurora the thing. Take Wembley, England, the place, and Wembley ice cream, the thing. How can one keep track?
Back to my two pens. I know one is a Cross and one is Parker, but I don't know which one is out of ink and which one is missing because I threw out the dried up one and the trash collectors already picked it up. Maybe when I finally find the missing one, I'll see that I mistakenly threw out the one with ink. At that point, what difference would it make which is a Cross and which a Parker? And anyway, their names are different. So this is all very much beside the point.
