A toast to Josh and Tracy

As delivered Saturday, August 5.

I’d like to talk briefly about Josh Loh right now. When Josh asked me to be his best man, or “best dude,” as he’s taken to calling it, I said, yes, I’m touched, and all that. Then I asked, why me?

He said, well, you are kinda my oldest friend. And there’s the blog.

I should explain that. While we’ve been busy recently, him with better excuses than me, we occasionally write about any topic that piques our interest, then post on a joint blog that includes some other people. It’s usually about current events, history, and St. Ann’s grads. Essentially, it’s the same letter writing we’ve done back and forth since entering college, but the letters are usually short and always available for anyone to see. I think that’s probably about six people, but who cares.

And Josh’s right about the other point. He and I have been friends since the first time we met, way back when he was wearing that cowboy hat.

So, I recently went back through all the correspondence that I have between me and Josh. Sometimes we--mostly him--sound almost prescient or, at the very least, knowledgeable. Like any look back at oneself, it was shocking, fascinating, and a bit reassuring. I didn’t cringe as much as I feared.

Here are some key points of what I found. We started sending articles back and forth, annotated with our comments, really early on. And you may have noticed that Josh can be, well, a tad intense.

This intensity shows in his emails, which are often long, impassioned, and thoughtful, and sometimes just impassioned. In them, Josh is fervent, often on the same topics as now. But the writing also reminded me just how many different ideas Josh’s had about what he’d be doing, and just how wrong he’s been.

For instance, before going to college, he said he would bring a little lawn with him. Never happened.

Then, on December 13, 1999, he wrote, “Having accepted that my fate is to fail everything in life miserably....” No, not quite.

On September 17, 2002, he mentioned looking at the application to the Columbia School of Journalism. Then, on September 20, he said he was looking at the publishing field. Nope--ended up at law school.

On June 7, 2003, he stated with great assurance that he would spend the next year in a marketing internship in Massachusetts and in getting a certificate in management studies at Brown. For shame, Josh, for shame.

And, scattered throughout--though he was generally too clever to put this down in writing--there were references to joining ROTC, the National Guard, the Army, the Marines, and/or JAG. Hmm.

I’d forgotten some of these things, though not the Army.

But a portrait of flighty, inconsistent Josh would be far from true or fair. We generally wrote back and forth on similar subjects as we do now. (Now, though, there’s more about Zac Posen, whose name I confess I raise almost solely to get a rise out of Josh.) Josh retains a certain antipathy toward certain countries. We still think that it’s time to start extraterrestrial colonies. We still suggest the same books to each other. And we still know how things should be.

And here’re some other examples.

On or about March 24, 2003, in the middle of an IM conversation about the Iraq War (we both thought it was a bad idea--and I can prove it), at 11:28 and 41 seconds p.m., Josh wrote, “Tracy bought me a book entitled ‘Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the Age of Nelson.’ I think I'm going to marry her.”

When I asked if the present was because of his birthday, he replied, “No, just because. We seem to get each other stuff a lot.” Then we got back onto Iraq.

And a bit less than a year later, on March 2, 2004, Josh wrote to me, “It’s really surprising what happens when you do hit it off with someone, and I wish someone had told me before now.”

And, a bit less than a year later than that, on February 21, 2005, Josh reported online that he was engaged.

Which brings me back to the present.

The emails certainly bear out Josh’s intensity, as for any perceived inconsistency, bah, hobgoblin, little minds, and all that. Really, I’m impressed with how Josh’s finest qualities--his drive, his wit, his intelligence, his fierce friendship--have shone through throughout. They’re things to aspire to.

Plus, I overlooked the big consistency, to which he’s dedicated all the attributes I could ever think of to describe him, and then some--Tracy. And, from the time I’ve spent with them, I know she’s done exactly the same right back at him. Perhaps with a bit more patience or something.

Well, I think it’s obvious that they love each other an awful, awful lot and make each other absurdly happy. I’m so glad of that and happy for them--we should all be so fortunate--and I can’t figure out how to say anything about the two of them beyond that without sounding incredibly trite or corny, so I’ll just ask you to help me out.

Please join me in a toast to Josh and Tracy, to their good health and happiness.