What's in a name?

by Grant

    Quite a bit. Did you notice that nobody names their kid Adolf anymore? What about Hussein? There's actually a suave and debonaire presidential candidate running for president with the middle name Hussein (last name Obama). Of course, some people still are relatively successful with abysmal names. I think a good example is Newt Gingrich. What a flippin' bad name. He could maybe survive the name Gingrich, but not with a first name like Newt. Isn't a newt something small and insignificant? Ah yes, "Eye of a Newt" is a prime ingredient in witches brew. I think Keren has been stocking it recently. (evil laugh). So, let's talk about the girls names.

Liberty:

    Well, I am an evil conservative so I happen to be farily in line with our Republican president on some minor issues such as "all men are created equal."  Since all men are indeed created equal (God is no respector of persons) I believe that the desire for liberty indwells all men. Liberty is something that we Americans tend to take for granted.  While our servicemen are fighting and dying to protect our freedom they will sow the seeds of freedom in other parts of the world as well.

Serenity:

    Liberty was easy to pick out. We had picked that out over two years ago. So now we had twins. Boy, we hadn't counted on having to pick out two girl names. Confusion reigned. Governments fell, new governments took their place until they too, were over turned by revolution. Coke introduced Newer Coke. Pepsi reintroduced Pepsi Clear calling it Pepsi-Transparent. Women submitted to their husbands. It truly was a chaotic time. We bandied about multiple names, but we wanted something that was patriotic. I won't bore you with some of the names because then you'll write us saying "Oh, that was a great name. You should've picked that." Yeah, if we'd wanted your opinion we would've consulted you prior to the branding. Moving right along (at the pace of a three-legged turtle), my wife suggested Serenity. There are several reasons that we felt that this fit.

Serenity means peace. And freedom and peace are quite tightly connected to each other. However, Serenity was also the name of a movie. It got its name from of the bloodiest battles between two factions. One faction believed that it was preferable for the government to rule the people and the other faction believed that people are the best decision makers of what is best for them. So, the irony is interesting. Serenity Valley was the site of a teriffic battle for freedom. We can always hope that this child of ours will be "Serene," but with our track record we're not counting on it. :)