Thursday's Thoughts - Theme: Ancestors

     Someday, it’s likely I will change my last name to detach from the family I was born into by “chance.” So few that the name belongs to have offered me help that I hardly see how I should keep it. For what genuine honor does any Mullino deserve outside of my father, who supports the idea of a name change?

     I had a conversation with my mother yesterday who proposed that it might be selfish to change my last name. But why? Is it still not my name, although a name someone placed on my head? Who deserves any credit for anything of my social existence, aside from me? If someone gives me something and I take it, that’s not selfishness. And quite frankly, it hasn’t happened too often among my ancestors.

This Week's Theme: Ancestors

“Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.” - Voltaire

“Every king springs from a race of slaves, and every slave had kings among his ancestors.” - Plato

“Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values.” - Ralph Ellison