When we got married, instead of using one of our last names or hyphenating, we decided to adopt a new last name altogether.
That name was Eden.
The Garden of Eden has many associations, including safety, comfort, and fertility. It can also be conceived of as a type of forager utopia, humans living in their original environment of evolutionary adaptation.
One reading of Becoming Eden is that we are trying to understand the ancestral human condition, to give our minds and bodies the environment that they expect. Combined with the marvels of modern civilization, this is a philosophy we believe will substantially increase well being.
Another major theme of this blog is self-improvement – we seek to learn about ourselves, reflect on our behavior, determine our values and goals, and make continuous incremental changes. In this sense, Becoming Eden is about how we are actively becoming the idealized versions of our selves.
And of course there are Lydia, Zeke, Maya, Xander, and Violet. They are becoming Edens a little bit more every day.