The Professor.

I received an email from one of my oldest friends just yesterday. It returned me to thinking of my hometown, back to when drinking Guinness and sharing hiking trail stories were the greatest of day to day burdens. Albert Goche has been a steadfast comrade throughout my youth and adulthood. His loves for brewing fine beers, reading, researching history, learning new skills and exploring the unexplored are second only to his deep-rooted understanding that everyone has the makings for peace within them. His schooling at Lane will certainly lead to a long career as a university history professor. He and Ken Aldrich are simply amazingly, brilliant men.

His 30th birthday was a few week ago and I will be making up for the missing of it with this, a letter, a new book, a beer and shot of Irish whiskey, a visit with my wife and this acknowledgement:

Al is the living embodiment of what Professor J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of the Ring, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." The end is folly if, when your travels are at an end, you find yourself alone, having met many but befriended few or none, or regretful of the journey you have undertaken for your whole life. Al has done much and will continue to do so for many years to come. I can only hope that I may do half as well as he.

Sláinte. Breithlá sona duit, Al. Síochán leat.