A discourse of the traits of your character which I admire, including a reference to pork scratchings and Charles Dickens

'One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things' 


Start with a quote. Some astute mind will have already have put it more elegantly than you could hope to. Starting with a quote is good.


What to write? I fear our shared anecdotes are lacking as we don't spend nearly enough time together. You exist on a scholarly schedule and I have progressed to the bromidic and soul crushing schedule of parental adulthood. I'm ready for my Ovaltine by 9pm. We have enjoyed some wild nights out together though haven't we? I remember sweaty pubs and music, shouting and shoving in alleyways, pints of local bitter and fatty, salted scratchings. Countless strangers with sad absurd tales and every night religiously sealed with English drizzle and platonic tired embraces. 


But I'm not sure we have an anecdote we could tell at a wedding do we?


So I thought instead I'd write about three things I admire about you. Hope that's okay.


I admire your thirst for knowledge. It's not the dry academia that sorts Oxbridge dons from Oldbury domestics, it's a rabid excitement for new ideas. I love the palpable enjoyment on your face when someone presents you with some little hidden nuance or nugget of poetry. You become animated, delighted by it. The same happens when you share a discovery of your own. Your start to talk faster and gesticulate more and it's joyful for me to watch. I hope you never lose that, because it's vital for any man with questions who feels he's on a path.


I admire your love for my home. The United Kingdom is a strange beast. Romantic  from afar, but plain and  grisly in the flesh. No everyone can stomach our faded empire glory and misplaced arrogance, our weather, our food, our consumptive culture. But you do. That shows sensitivity and courage. That shows deep thought and a willingness to mine for treasure despite the dirt. The beautiful parts of this country thrill you as well they should. You're in Dublin as I write this and frantically tweeting pictures of every pub and pipe you chance upon. I know your affinity for our countryside. That's the easy part. But the thing I admire is your love for the people here, their strange eccentricity and the history that has shaped them. Who knows what the future holds? I believe you'd be as comfortable in a leather armchair reading Dickens as the rain beats on your lead-paned windows as you would be mopping your brow and drinking sweet tea on an ornate Georgia porch in the heat of summer. You've a home here if you choose it.


Finally, I admire your personal strength. We all have our own battles. Sometimes we gain ground and sometimes we're overrun. But the best of us keep fighting and that's what you do, you keep fighting. That's to be admired.


There you have it. 


Happy 30th birthday Tatum.


Amos.