My companion Kathy and myself, along with our three children make up the "Aquarius" Family. No, we are not some new age hippies kinda thing (at least I hope not...). I feel that surnames are historically tied to patriarchy in a dehumanizing way - through loss of identity and ownership - so when our first child was ready to make its appearance on this planet I suggested to Kathy that rather than create some ridiculous hyphenated surname from our own - that since we were creating both a new family unit as well as a new human - we should give the child (and family) its own surname. She replied with, "WhachutalkinboutWilis?" (Well, actually she said "Chris" but Willis is so much funnier, especially when said by Gary Coleman - who I happen to share the same birthday with...shudder, shudder, shudder...)

Actually she said, "Like what name?" And I said, "Well, since we both share the Aquarius zodiacal sign (not that I believe in that crap, but you know it's kinda cute...especially on your birthday and New Year's...) and we both share this child (or so you say, I'm still waiting for a DNA test...) then why not give the child the surname "Aquarius." She looked at me with a blank stare and asked, "Are you still going to pay half the mortgage?" and I said, "Ummm...yeah." and so she said, "Whatever." and that settled it. And so now we have three Aquarians (none of which actually have that zodiacal sign...): Cabiria, Lórien, and Paisley from whom I continue to learn much more than they could possibly ever learn from me.