What's in a Name?

Tooley to Pages to Danniells

My birth certificate says I'm Jon Danniell Tooley. I never met the man who's name ended in Tooley, aka my birth father. I was raised and took on the name of my step-father Ruben Pages.  But we had a strained relationship to say the least and as soon as I could, I ditched that surname as well and just added an "s" to my middle name and was suddenly Jon Danniells and have been that person for the last 30 years or so. 

My wife never gave up her family name. She says it was because of her career, but I think it was more than that. Familiarity, proud of her dad and family, and that my last name wasn't the one I was born with or grew up with. 

Why am I bringing it up now?

Good question.

I suppose, in part, because I am up in the mountains, in the shadow of where I was lost overnight in Yosemite National Park when I was 6 years old and I recall the newspaper article referring to me as Johnny Pages. I've never been a Johnny and I haven't been a Pages in a couple of decades. But I was certainly that lost little boy and it has effected me ever since, regardless of which name the newspapers used.

I'm also starting to write a very premature auto-biography that will be tied into my blog or at least that's the plan

I don't have an ending yet; but I do have a title; 

Lost Not Found