The word, “Contoveros” in Latin means “Singer of Truth.” I didn’t know that as a child when I learned that it was my father’s real last name. Someone at Ellis Island shortened it to “Contos.” One of my wives once told me that the new word means “Short.”

I’m five-foot-six inches tall on my best days, and I don’t like to be reminded that I am considered short by most people. Randy Newman, the singer, must have had me in mind when he wrote and sang his song called “Short People.” I didn’t mind, however. Napoleon was short. So was Jimmy Cagney, the actor. I read that St. Francis of Assisi was not even five-foot-two inches!

And if you can believe the latest research done of what Jesus might have looked like, scientists will tell you that the Savior was only five-foot-three inches, or thereabouts.

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Enough of the short stuff. I have taken to my father’s name, Contoveros,  like the proverbial fish out of the water, water from the Aegean Sea, to be exact. That’s where his home was on a small Greek island named Nysiros.

. . . . My hero Pete Seeger, singing truth to power

I started to use the designation when I was painting. I worked with ceramics and then drew and painted a few images in some classes I took. It felt comfortable to carve it on the bottom of the porcelain jar or vase. “Contoveros” looked good at the bottom of the paintings, several of which I framed and are hanging in my living room.

But it was for this Blog that Contoveros really took over my psyche. Since day one in October of 2009, I have tried to share the truth that I feel. It comes through meditation and silence when I commune with my muse of the divine spirit that seems to call from within.

If I listen close enough, I can hear the whispers, the soft sounds and words of wisdom that a Higher Force wants me to put onto a computer screen. I feel honored to be such a conduit. Even when my lower self, you know — that ego self — disagrees sometimes, I still let it pour onto the page. I apologize ahead of time for any misunderstandings my words might create. That is not my intent.

But maybe the misunderstanding is what you and I need sometime to get our thoughts and feelings straightened out.

I don’t know. I’m just a reporter, a messenger who is trying to sing the truth as he feels it.

Contoveros, 2016