Getting Finn to celebrate Finn is a quixotic climb. Even getting him to acknowledge he was born is challenging. He continues to be modest, to say the least, and anti attention. So we mainly celebrated the 15th birthday with a low-key family affair. Tatum couldn’t be there because of school but joined by phone. Kevin was still in town for the autumn-winter interlude, so that was lucky; and of course Poppy, Grams and Blitz are always up for a celebration and a chance to cheer on Finn. Also, great luck, our friend Noelle from Jakarta via North Carolina, was visiting.
Finn is a hard one to shop for gift wise because he’s very minimalist. The best gift I could have given him would have too been to clean out the kitchen junk drawer—the only thing we argue about is whether we actually need two spatulas when we could get by with one—but I don’t have it in me. So I got him the next best thing I could think of: a large recycling bin. He not infrequently goes into the woods of his own accord to pick up broken glass and other recycling. Thankfully, he loved it. He loved Blitz’s harmonica more (Clara loves it less).
On the other hand, Finn is not hard to feed, in the sense that the boy likes to eat. It’s not hard to find food he’ll appreciate. The quantities are occasionally a problem to keep up with. In honor of his love of all things pure, he had a vanilla cake with vanilla icing—and cherry chocolate chip Hagen Daaz.
After some coaxing, he did eventually agree to all a couple of friends to see a movie at the mall with him a few nights later—but they were not to know it was in honor of his birthday. Matthew, Finn Sullivan and Finn saw the 1980s classic “Die Hard,” which I had the joy of sitting through as well because teens are not allowed to see an R rated movie without an adult. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and sat in the farthest possible seat.
He’s getting better every day at jump roping and is getting excellent feedback from teachers about his performance at school. He found the first book he loves (aside from Dairy of a Wimpy Kid), called “Can’t Hurt Me,” a memoir by David Goggins. He’s most favorite creature on earth remains Bali. He is hard working, disciplined, responsible, kind, minimalist, fun and occccccasionally aggravated by those less so than him (i.e., Clara and me). He’s 15 and focused.
@theterrace 