David & Iris

for your birthdays

For David

photo: Tony A.

The group text came through asking what we were doing for David’s birthday, and I thought I was pretty clever by responding, “A Substack post of course, it’s one of David’s love languages.” Now that I’m sitting here, with Substack open, I’m asking myself, well, what next? What do I write?

I guess I could start by telling you how nice it was to have a phone catch-up while we were both on vacation, you in Spain, and me in Oregon. I can’t recall the last time in my life where this scenario happened. The phone conversation flowed easily and hit the sweet spot on length, and both made for an uplifting rather than a draining experience. On the topic of phone conversations, you and I get a GOLD ⭐️ for our consistency and commitment since your move to Oaxaca.

I could talk about how I get the sense that you are committed to nurturing and building our friendship, and that willingness to invest makes me feel good about our relationship moving forward — as we continue to live in different countries from each other.

I could also talk about how compelling you are as a person, from athlete, to writer, philosopher, social do-gooder, and to polyglot (English, Spanish, and you ARE half Japanese 😝). Your many facets mean that I am constantly learning from our friendship.

I’m going to stop here because it feels like everything I have written, you already know — as Gen X, you and I hang out and talk IRL. And this post, more in line with Gen Z, is purely performative for your birthday. Well, my friend, I just want to acknowledge your birthday and give you a simple but thoughtful gift on your 44th year. Here are my top two videos of us. Onward and upward.

For Iris

Iris, happy early birthday! Only two days after David, is this why the both of you are such a good match? As a birthday gift, I dedicated my Sunday morning run to seeing the world through your eyes as a botanicalphile. Here are the results. I hope you enjoy them and that they remind you a bit of your former Berkeley home!

The last photo is not from my run but during my walk home from Cafenated after writing this post. I saw this flower and thought of you, Iris! Feliz Cumpleaños!