Life's Scents And The Creation Of Our Passion Within Our Self

Tony Bennett who is now eighty-five years young was on television lately and he said “create a passion for yourself.” That is a great line to include in your current life. There is a ninety-four year young woman who dances with her teacher in shows at the dance studio. There are thousands of older people who go dancing every week at their favorite dance facility.. They socialize, exercise and have a marvelous time every session they are doing this passion.

My brother liked to go camping and he enjoyed being out in his small boat. I could not even ever attempt his passion for those hobbies because everyone thinks differently about doing pleasurable activities.

I know a lady who gave up her regular job and took up painting as an artist. She took art lessons at the age of fifty and became very successful in her quest for artistic endeavors. Her home is filled with her artwork and she has sold many of her paintings to very prosperous clients. She always wanted to paint and when the time came for her fiftieth birthday; she decided not to wait until retirement and she happily quit her job because her finances were fine.

My Uncle Louie (the good Lou) always wanted to have another name as my grandmother named all of her seven children with only one name. At the age of about thirty something, he added a first name to the Louis name and called himself Julian Louis Weinstein. He still was referred to as Lou or Louie, but he legally added the first name. This was a simple way of making him feel successful and fulfilled having what most of us have- three names. Most women now days go by their first name, their maiden name and their married name. In my case, my first name is Esther and the second is Elita and my parents always called me by Elita. That was the way my grandmother was known and I was named after her. So I technically am E.Elita Sohmer Clayman and that is right for me.

When I was dating, if I did not like the young man’s name, I hesitated to go out with him. I went out with a guy named Merle and though he was very nice, I knew a lady named Merle and that made him not so sexy in my young woman’s eyes. I went out with another guy and his name was George and I thought that quite old fashioned because I had a dear, darling Uncle George, but since I loved my uncle, that was acceptable. I went out with a guy named Leslie and that turned me off because I knew lots of girls named Leslie. Now days girls have boy’s names like Sidney, Charlee,Kelly,Lee etc. My own mom was named Leah and she dropped the ‘h’ and pronounced it Lee not Leah. I knew of someone whose mom was Anne, her name Joanne and her daughter named Leanne. They all love the Anne in their names. Everyone has a choice in naming their child, but we do not have a choice in our own name.

Have you ever thought of what your name would be if you had the chance to name yourself? On soap operas certain names became popular because the viewers would name their child the names of their favorite characters on the soap operas. The names of Brittany, Ashley,Tiffany and Laurie became popular. One of the ophthalmology technicians in my doctor’s office had the name of Lori. I said to her one day that I bet her mom watched the soap opera of many years ago called The Edge Of Night. She said that was where her mom got the name and even spelled it as Lori instead of Laurie because on the show that was how it was spelled. She told her mom what I said and her mom said, yes, indeed I was right.

My friend Elsie went out with a guy named Zane. There was a popular author named Zane Grey. That is probably where his name was derived from.In my mom’s family, a distant cousin was named Beryl. Then another cousin named her child Beryl. So to distinguish between the two Beryl’s, one was referred to as Beryl the One and the other was called Beryl the Two. My mom’s older brother was Julius and they had three cousins named Julius at the same time. So when talking about one or the other, they were referred to as Eta’s Julius or Mary’s Julius or Helen’s Julius. All three men were about the same age.

As I mentioned in a former article, my dad was Joseph and his sister was Sarah. Then his older sister named her two kids Joseph and Sarah even though her brother and sister had those names. Jewish people name their kids after a deceased and beloved person, relative or friend. Therefore, my aunt in naming her two children names of her brother and sister kind of did not follow the rule. However, she said they were named after another Joseph and Sarah on her husband’s side. That seemed to be normal and everyone stopped making comments to her.

My friend Myra had an uncle and his name happened to be Adolph. He owned a group of beauty salons way back in the 1940’s and at that time, Adolph Hitler was in power and people did not associate the name Adolph with being pleasant and going to a shop named with the name of a heinous, evil person seemed wrong in their mind. His business fell off and he tried to change the names of the salons,

But business was still slow and he closed them. It seemed the name which was his first and legal name did not help the salons to prosper.

Names are truly something to think about when you name a child and if you are like I was when I was a young woman; you measured the person by his name which was given to him through no fault of his own. I always kid my husband whose name is Jerome Harris, that if his first name had been Harris, I might not have gone out with him, though I thought it classy as a second name. Then, we would not have been married for almost fifty-two years, had two children, four grandchildren and maybe, I would not have taken up ballroom dancing. Who knows what would have, could have or should have happened?

I have had a person in my life that was not nice to me and if I meet a person with that same first name, I think, how will they be? It is funny because they all turn out to be really fine and caring people even though they had that same first name of a person I did not like.

So as I referred to in two former articles written here, I had two Uncle Lou’s. One I called the good Lou and the other the bad Lou for many true reasons. That proves that whatever name you know someone of, another person with the same name can be completely the opposite in personality and kindness.

Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet “Names of things do not matter; only what things are.” A name is an epithet, a label, a designation. It is said that a rose by any other name is still a rose. I knew an artist who named her daughter Violet because she loved the lavender-purple shade when she painted her canvases. Everyone thought it odd at first, but I thought it was clever in a different manner. I had a repair man whose name was Thomas Thompson. I had a neighbor whose name was Aaron Aaron. That was a bit difficult to tell someone you just met.

When my sister-in-law who was a nurse was doing her rotation as a student nurse in the maternity division, they listed on a blackboard (no computers yet in those days) all the events happening to the mother-to-be. When the baby was born, a social worker from the city of Baltimore came around to list the newborn’s name. A new mom told the social worker the little girl’s name would be Feces. The worker said (and they usually never questioned the choice) that was not an appropriate name for the child and told her what it meant. She continued to express her wish for that name because she had seen it on the blackboard while she was in labor. The head nurse and the supervisor came to her and advised her not to do this and to talk it over with the father and her family. She insisted and the social worker put it down and wrote a note that this mom had been told it was not a workable and decent name. They never knew what happened after she and the baby left for home. They all assumed and hoped she would change it to Felicity which was so much more of a beautiful name. They suggested the name to her and she said maybe she would name her that.

Emily Dickinson said “title is mine.” Whatever your title is, you can become whatever you want to be and you can make it happen as soon as you desire it to happen. As Tony Bennett said you should create your own passion and let it be for yourself. Whatever name you have whether you love it, like it or even do not care for it, the glory can still be yours because your passions in doing things will still happen and your name being Rose, Violet, Julius, Beryl or anything else, you will still be divine, supreme and even perfect.

It is said that fame is nice and that it is the perfume of heroic deeds. Plato said this and it is still true. We all like to be recognized for all of our deeds that are good because that shows that we are fine and decent people and being recognized or having fame as Plato phrased it is a perfume of excellent life’s scents.