My Nephew Nate

You know my nephew Nathan…

You met him if you ever watched the ‘Big Bang Theory’: Nathan is the tall, dark haired guy. Smart, handsome, a little neurotic.

Watching that show … is like watching Nate.

Nathan lives in a small town, a very small town, in Bulgaria. He would like to be someplace else: maybe.

He can speak the language, although he will tell you he can’t.. but I’ve watched him.

And the Gypsies have a place in his heart: although he denies that too.

“It’s another Gypsy wedding on the square! You have to come watch them dance! There’ll be fireworks tonight too!”

He admits to loving the Bulgarian beer, which is good because the beginnings of a belly would make that a hard one to deny.

Nathan on the Olympics.. when it was in Vancouver a few months back..

“yeah, I try to catch the Olympics when I can.. usually check the day’s results, but I don’t really see the point anyway.. the locals are’t much interested this year, they only had about 3 athletes anyway and one of their medal contenders is currently in prison, one is too busy doing yoghurt commercials and the other has seriously injured herself…”

Nathan doesn’t see the point to a lot of things… but he followed Bea and I to the Persian Gulf, picking up our clothes and ready to protect our honor should the situation arise, and when the sun shines through the clouds he looks up in wonder and asks that we all take some time to see the “Jesus sky.”

I love the magical way he is able see the world. And he is absolutely brilliant.

Nathan had written a book by the time he was twelve.

But then he threw it away.

He is fascinating, generous, kind, creative and tormented. Like so many of us, not quite sure what to make of this thing called life.

But he spends too much time in that emotional part of his head.. and he worries..

He wrote my sister, his mom, the other day from his (our) home in Bulgaria. Jackie had made the mistake of asking how he was.

“I've been counting the days till the lady with handcuffs shows up again.”

He married a lovely Bulgarian girl.. Together with his mother, musicians, good friends and total strangers, he danced his way along the streets of Dolna Banya to his brides parents home, for the ceremony.

How brilliant is that?

…yet.. after six years, he still hasn’t managed to swing a visa.

Ahh.. the Baltics eh Nate?!