I want to say belated Happy Birthday to our daughter Michele.  Her birthday coincides with Earth Day, not that I’d ever forget in any case.  It’s a coincidence that both our children were born on days of annual significance, Michele on Earth Day, April 22nd, and Patrick on St Patrick’s Day, March 17th.  I know it’s hard to believe Patrick was one of the names we were considering for our first baby if he happened to be a boy but it’s true.  Being born on March 17 just kind of clinched it for us.   In our Western culture everyone has at least one given name along with their family name.  Some people have two given names and others have three.  Notice I said in our culture.  There are some parts of the world where a person’s name is quite long and there are traditional family reasons for this.  I have three given names, the two middle ones coming from middle names of my father and his father.  My first name comes from my paternal grandfather, Victor, who, along with my grandmother came to Canada from Belgium in (I think) 1912.  Hence my French-sounding last name.  My grandpa enlisted in the Canadian Army and went and fought in Europe in that war.  When my dad told him he was thinking of joining the military grandpa Victor is said to have told him that if he joined the Army grandpa would hit him over the head with a piece of wood (my grandfather was a master carpenter who built houses for a living).  So, my dad did an end run and spent 28 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force.   By the way, my dad had three given names as did his dad.   My wife Bev has three, son Patrick has three, daughter Michele has two, don’t ask me why because I forget.