what's in a name

[balmofgilead]

not much.

seriously. 

It has nothing to do with Margaret Atwood's book The Handmaid's Tale.  Haven't even read that, but I'm told there's something about a place called Gilead there.

It has nothing to do with bible study, although the plant name Balm of Gilead stems from the biblical passage "Is there no balm in Gilead,  is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"

I hate usernames (and screen names and email addresses) with numbers after them.  With a passion.  And since LJ has been around for awhile, most handles I considered had been taken.

I considered the username "myrrh" because it sounds vaguely like the beginning of my first name and seemed random and interesting and exotic, but it was taken.  Anxious to pick something, I moved on to other names for myrrh.   balmofgilead  had a certain ring to it somehow.  Right number of syllables, right syllables accented, whatever.  And there you have it. 

I guess it does represent me in some odd ways.  I was, for the most part, raised Orthodox Jewish, and attended a day school where we spent at least 2 periods each day studying the old testament in the original Hebrew. And although I couldn't place it on a map, we definitely mentioned Gilead (or Gilad as it would be pronounced in Hebrew) more than once.  So the biblical connection is perhaps apropos.   And I am quite interested in medicine and healing and herbs and the medicinal properties of herbs, and I like public health. So perhaps it's not quite so random. 

My main objective in this post is just to explain that I'm neither a bible freak nor a Margaret Atwood fan.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't want to be identified as something I'm not :).