Titles

Graduates of culinary schools are not chefs, they just have the capacity to become chefs.  I will never be a chef because I am a baker and bakers aren't chefs.  My mom always struggled with this titling thing.  She doesn't understand how I can be the head baker but I am not the chef.  Chef's make meals; I bake bread.  I like being a baker.  It's like being a chef without the ego. I have several friends who like to be called Chef on a regular, personal level.  I think it's a little odd.  I like to leave my work at work so to speak.

My step-father has a PhD in psychology.  He insists on being called Dr. Tubman.  He goes so far as to insist that I (his step-daughter since I was 10) call him Dr. Tubman.  My other option was 'Dad' and I only have one of those!  He says he earned his degree so it is only right that I call him Dr. as a sign of respect.  Funny, the people who truly deserve the distinction don't seem to care so much.  My grandfather had his PhD, too.  I first discovered this when I was addressing graduation announcements in college.  None other than my mother told me the fancy letters had to come before his name.  He would never have gone so far as to introduce himself as Doctor like 'Bill', that's Dr.Tubman, does.  Bill introduced himself as Dr. Tubman to my friend, Jai's dad, a bio-chemist, who asked Bill what kind of medicine he practiced.  Bill had to admit he didn't practice medicine and I was mortified after the whole chain of events.  Jai's dad has a PhD as well but I only know him as Babaji, Hindi for father.

This past Christmas, I was addressing cards when I got to my mother's, of course, I addressed it to: Bill & Anna Ruth Tubman.  If he weren't my step-father of nearly twenty years, I would have respectfully included the D and the R.  By the way, his close friends call him Bill but for some reason his step-daughter can't.  20 years later, he must still be upset about the 'Dad' thing.

I was chatting with my grandmother while printing the addresses on my cards.  I got to her brothers' cards and she informed me that they too earned the  'Dr.' in front of their names.  Obviously, I've known my uncles since my conception but I never knew they were doctors.  I wonder how many other relatives I've been offending all these years.

Wow! This post seems a little bitter.  It is not my intention; I only wanted to share a piece of humanity that seems to comes to light often in my day to day!