A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words… Unless You’re Dorian Gray

My Mama told me today where my name came from, and from what I understand, it is from a book about a man who lives forever through a painting that ages instead of him aging. That doesn’t seem right, because all of the pictures that I see in our house have my big sister, my big, big sister, and my giant brother smaller than they are now, so it seems backwards to me. My mama said that this man was kind of backwards and that his name was Dorian Gray.

My Mama said that Daddy has a name from books too because Granddaddy Moe also had a love for books, and that this is why his name is spelled weird. Mama said his name is Spenser instead of Spencer after Edmund Spenser, who wrote a giant poem that keeps going and going and going. Mama called it “epic” I think, but I am not sure what that means exactly.

Mama and Daddy decided that my name should be like his name, so they both got to pick a name that meant something to them. Mama picked Dorian because she loves the man who wrote it, Oscar Wilde, and she said something about Dorian being both a beautiful and tragic character. I am not sure why she named me after a man who apparently did bad things, but Mama said that he is not a bad man; he just became bad because people can be weak if they are tempted. Mama told me that it actually makes her happy to read, and that just like bad things that happen in life, there is good in it if you only look close enough. She said that the meaning really to take from it is in these words…

“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.”

She said that is how she hopes that I will live my life, and I think that I am doing pretty well so far. I live my life in a simple way, not afraid, seeing everything that I can. Mama says that if I keep living that way and don’t forget when I get older, that my life will be amazing and beautiful just like me.