Ten years ago today, I met a boy who made me want to be a better man.
I don’t always succeed, and I often do him the disservice of being hardest on him when he reflects my own character traits, and softest when he is like his mother. But a quick flip through the decade of memories contained in these birthday photo albums Erin just gave him serves as a gorgeous reminder of how lucky I am to get to serve as a parent, steward and friend to this brilliant spirit.
Legend has it that H_______, like Athena, sprang fully formed from the head of Zeus. However, a conflicting account from his older sister indicates that he was born in a hospital, because she remembers arriving shortly after his birth and immediately placing her thumb in his mouth to confirm that he sucked.
He was born with the heart of an adventurer, the perception of a detective, and a dislike for showers rivaling a vampire’s aversion to sunlight. He grew quickly. He learned the pleasures of sticky things, like adhesive lint brushes. He learned the joys of wrestling before his bath, after his bath, during his bath. He learned the joys of reading – especially to the exclusion of his chores, homework, or dinner conversation. From baseball, he learned the thrill of victory, and the not-really-agony-at-all of defeat. From fencing, he learned that swords are just as awesome as he imagined they’d be.
He survived an inexplicable series of injuries – a concussion sustained while exploring a picnic table, an arm broken while playing on a couch, a set of stitches earned from an encounter with a kindergarten shelf, and yet more stitches obtained from an ill-advised game of his own invention: Run-While-Wearing-A-Cardboard-Box-On-Your-Head. Yet he emerged from them all stronger and more fearless.
He learned how to torment his older sister, while quietly adoring her. He learned how to nurture his younger siblings, while loudly pretending that he wasn’t.
During his formal 4th grade self-evaluation, his expressed objective was “to continue to be awesome”. Though his teacher rightly pointed out that this goal lacked specificity, there can be no doubt that he achieved it, and continues to do so.
Happy birthday H______. I love you forever, and could not be more proud.