What’s In a Name?

Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

 

Juliet’s famous question to Romeo about the importance of names has been bothering for weeks as I have struggled to come up with a name appropriate for this blog and its content. As I tossed around ideas (thanks Mom and Aaron for letting me discuss this with you at length!) I kept returning to one of my favorite poems for inspiration.

Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of (in my opinion) the best poems ever written. It perfectly captures the adventurous spirit of humanity, as well as wrestling with the themes of memory, heroism, and friendship. I have read it dozens of times, and still get chills as I finish the closing lines.

The last time I read the poem, one line in particular that I had never noticed before strongly resonated with me:

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

(http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659)

This beautiful image struck me as the perfect summation of what I want this blog to be: a place where I can record my travels, look back at my experiences, and allow each experience in the past to color and inform the experiences to come.