Matthew Munson is the Chief Technology Officer for a data storage firm based in Milton Keynes. There’s also a Matthew Munson living in Germany working as a researcher in theology for a university, another one who’s a camera operator and editor, a fourth who (I shudder to confess) appeared in the reality TV show “Bachelor in Paradise,” an American Matthew Munson who is a professional photographer, another who is a lawyer specialising in business and fraud, and a seventh who holds a PhD, is the programme manager for the American army’s research office, and is something of an expert in fluid dynamics.
Unique
This is rather disturbing, dear readers; I always used to think that I was rather unique. In fact, my mum always told me I was very unique – special, even, although she would always laugh hysterically when she told me that, so on reflection, I’m not sure how reliable her information was in those moments.
Now, however, I find out that my name is not owned by me and me alone. My surname is comparatively unusual here in Thanet – I’m pretty confident in saying that I know about every Munson who lives, and am related to every single one (there’s not many of us) – and even in places where there are a few more clusters (whisper it, but in places like Essex), we’re still a fairly rare breed.
Diverse
But Matthew Munsons? Well, I’m no longer alone; there’s a little clan of us dotted around the UK and in America; one likes thrash metal, it seems, another likes skateboarding rather a lot, and another is the head of Lawn Services, whatever that is. I’m certainly intrigued; we’re a diverse lot.
I really became aware of this just the other day when I was chatting to fellow The Isle of Thanet News columnist Seb Reilly and he discovered that my Amazon page – which should, of course, have listed just three books – actually listed four.
Book number four
Four books! I don’t even remember writing four books, especially one as … different as this one, entitled Biblical Semantics: Applying Digital Methods for Semantic Information Extraction to Current Problems in New Testament Studies. I’ve never written a book like this in my life and I’ve never had even the slightest desire to; I’m an atheist and this sort of book wouldn’t have even occurred to me to write. I’m not a non-fiction writer, for a start, and I’m not interested in doing an analysis of biblical semantics.
But the book was there nonetheless; Amazon had mis-indexed the book to me, rather than the American academic living in Germany who actually deserved the accolade. I’ve pinged Amazon an email for them to correct the issue, and also sent my namesake a message just to say a friendly hello, and that’s that.
The Munsons
Except now I know there are a plethora of Matthew Munsons out there, each with lives as diverse and as different as mine, I’m so incredibly tempted to make contact with a few, just to see if I’ve got anything in common with any of them, or whether our association is only name-deep. Most of them probably are, to be fair, but I’m curious to meet just that one who might be as eccentric and creative as me. Here’s to the search …