Do you have people who you use to be very close to and now are not? You grow apart, develop different lives, and move afar. Some friends you still talk to all the time, others you let be fond memories of another time and yet there are those people in between. You barely talk (or message), have no idea of what is going on in their lives other than big news posted on social media. Sure you are invited to their wedding, send holiday messages of cheer and presents for a birth but you don’t really know their thoughts or feelings anymore. When you do get to see them you feel like you have so much to say and very little to talk about. It is confusing. So you make small chit chat, ask the standard how’s life questions but you leave the conversation feeling like something was missing, something you are not sure how to describe, like there is a gap you are not bridging. I want to start bridging that gap, start saying all those silenced emotions, left by the wayside for fear of being too intense, unreciprocated, overly emotional or just lame. But those people who meant so much in the past need to know that they mattered, I need them to know that they mattered and still do. So that gap, those feelings they sum up to this; I Love You. Not in a romantic way, almost like family but different. You were there for me when I needed it, even when I didn’t know I needed it. I was there for you in your dark hours, in times of joy and mischief. We shared an understanding that I cannot explain. We gave advice freely, truthfully and without malice. When we argued and fought it was never to hurt but to challenge, to spar because we respected each other’s strength. Of course I could be reading too much in to our friendship. You might not feel the same. But I think telling people how I feel about them is how we develop close friendships. So I am going to take the risk and let you know how I feel, hopefully it will brighten your day and if you think I am weird by the end of it that is fine, weird is why I became friends with you in the first place.

Reach me down my Tycho Brahé, — I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, ‘tis original and true,
And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.

But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
What for us are all distractions of men’s fellowship and wiles;
What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles.

You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant’s fate.
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight;
You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night.
I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known.
You “have none but me,” you murmur, and I “leave you quite alone”?

Well then, kiss me, — since my mother left her blessing on my brow,
There has been a something wanting in my nature until now;
I can dimly comprehend it, — that I might have been more kind,
Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind.

I “have never failed in kindness”? No, we lived too high for strife,—
Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life;
But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still
To the service of our science: you will further it? you will!

There are certain calculations I should like to make with you,
To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true;
And remember, “Patience, Patience,” is the watchword of a sage,
Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age.

I have sown, like Tycho Brahé, that a greater man may reap;
But if none should do my reaping, ‘twill disturb me in my sleep
So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name;
See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame.

I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak;
Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak:
It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,—
God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.