A real-life case of amnesia
One usually associates amnesia with cheesy movie plots, but sometimes it happens in real life.
Benjaman Kyle, as he chooses to call himself, was discovered, naked, sunburnt, and apparently severely beaten up, behind a Burger King in Georgia, USA.
And at that point, around 50 years of age, his life began.
The pseudonym he chose for himself fascinates me. Why the “Benjaman” instead of “Benjamin”? Is there some suble wordplay going on? He’s not Everyman, he’s Benjaman?
But then, even if he had chosen to go by the name “Zorgle Weeblebrodskni” if would consider it fair to let him live under that name, legally. Who knows what deeper meanings a self-chosen name has for someone with no identity otherwise?
Yet, there’s something sad to the name choice as well. Because the banal detail of having been “born” behind a Burger King seems to cling to him. The nurses took to calling him names like “BK Doe” – all plays on Burger King – and when he chose a name for himself, he apparently could not move away from the BK either.
And how’s this for poignancy?
He spends most of his days – when not working odd jobs – searching for himself on the internet and in newspaper articles.
Benjaman, if you Google this: I wish you luck.