William Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.  Isn’t that the truth?  But in the play Romeo and Juliet, I’m told that Shakespeare was referring to Juliet’s argument that it doesn’t matter that Romeo’s surname is ‘Montague’ from her family’s rival’s ‘house of Montague’.    It made me think about my name – or, my ‘names’.  I was born Dawn Ellen Bean, but have been known by variations of that name, or completely different names according to my relationship with others.

I would never have dreamt in a thousand years that I would be using this space this month for the following:

      Jesse Diauto – Born January 21, 1977 – Died unexpectedly May 22, 2017

I always loved going home for the breaks during my college years. It was HOME! With all its familiarity, I could have navigated through our old New England colonial blindfolded. Nothing ever changed. Everything was right where it supposed to be. The butter and condiments were in the same cupboard. The towels right where they should be in the hall closet. The dog’s dish to the left of the kitchen stove. And my left over high school memoirs still right in the draw where they were first placed. Everything was the same. I loved it!

It is common knowledge that every major religion has a symbol.  I’m sure that we all would recognize each one.  My favorite television quiz program, Jeopardy has had a category more than once covering ‘world religions and their symbols’.  I came across an article recently that put together these religions with their visual symbols in the following succinct manner –

“Not everyone can say (it), but I count myself lucky to have a birth mother who loved me enough to know she wasn’t ready to be a mom. I’m lucky that I have wonderful parents who chose me. I often say adoption is a full-circle blessing and I truly believe it. Adopted children were not abandoned, we were chosen.  – Kristen Chenoweth