Henry William Lorenzo

Okay all you readers it's time for me to confess something. My husband thinks we named the baby Henry William after his father, Willem Henrikes. Here is the truth:

What he does not know is that in my mind the baby is named Henry after my favorite character in Shakespeare's Plays, King Henry (Henry the 5th), who is the main character in Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. I find the image of the (now) righteous warrior king to be so powerful as Henry leads his subjects into battle against the French, and then binds up the wounds by making a love match with the princess Catherine.

This speech is my favorite: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechhenryV.html

Of course William is after The bard himself. Forget that William is Marty's middle name, or his Dad's (Willem), or his grandfather, or my great-grandfather. Okay maybe those things were influential, but not THAT influential. Don't you know that Henry is going to be a brilliant writer himself and bring the literary world to its knees, not to mention sell millions of books and buy his mother a castle in Scotland next door to JK Rowling? (Maybe MacBeth's is available?) Then I can spend my days wandering the Heath, looking for eye of newt. Never mind that right now the only word he seems to know is "NIIIIIYE!!!!" (Which originally meant Caroline, but now seems to be an all-purpose word meaning, "I'm here, pay attention to me!") Don't you know that Henry's 17th great-grandfather was Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English Literature (this is the problem with studying Family History, you get a rather inflated sense of your destiny by knowing that you have such potential within your genes).

When we were in London, visiting the new Globe Theater was really a highlight of the trip for me.

Lorenzo I was able to throw in there after learning about my great-great grandfather Albert Lorenzo Cullimore. I fell in love with him a little bit (in a granddaughterly way of course) reading about his life, and I needed to throw in a little something from my family, since we were after all naming the baby after his father's father!

I think I developed my love of Shakespeare as a child doing backyard Shakespeare three separate summers. Never mind that I played male characters the first two years, at least I had a good role the second year. In my final year I got a plum role as Gertrude, the queen in Hamlet (Hamlet's mother). I can still remember the brocade ribbon on my costume and having my sister french braid my hair for me, since I could never do it well myself. I can remember the feeling of standing on the stage/back porch in the hot summer evening. I think that was a prime moment in my life.

So Henry, my beloved son, as you turn one this weekend, remember that you will grow up to be kind, righteous, and brave like King Henry, and witty and clever like the Bard, and generous and faithful like grandpa Albert.