good morning John it's Saturday what on
earth am I doing here on statins I'm
throwing a wrench in the whole thing I
made a video yesterday about octopuses
and now I'm back this isn't how it works
except of course it is because John I'm
here to tell you that I your brother
Hank green love you thanks for being a
good brother because it is esterday it
is in fact the 10th yesterday if you can
believe that
this is what you look like when you are
announcing the very first Esther day you
were so young and beautiful and that
hair you had to crop get to go down here
your eyes keep them down here so they
could fit the hair John I love you I've
always loved you I've not always loved
your hair I also love that for the last
ten years we've taken a day of the year
at the request of Esther Earl a
nerdfighter an awesome person to tell
the people that we love we love them not
our internet faves not our crushes but
our friends and family who we want to
always be there for and who probably
know that we love them and maybe we just
assume that they know but that doesn't
mean that they don't want to hear it and
that it isn't actually good to say it
out loud sometimes it's just really
important and like after 10 years of
doing it I realize how important it is I
think sometimes that like tradition can
get a bad rap because of course
tradition comes from the old times and
the old times were bad like mountains of
cholera and irrational hatred bad and
yeah because of that some traditions
that we hold on to and we've sort of
refused to modify because we're sort of
like tied to the idea of the tradition
itself can be sort of counter to our
value and maybe I'm just getting old
here but I think that the existence of
tradition is very good like having a
time every year to say thanks to your
mom even if it was created by a greeting
card company that's a good tradition
it's been times in my life when I've
kind of coupled those two things
together like the idea of a particular
exercise of a tradition and the idea of
like the existence of tradition like
repeatedly doing things for a reason
that you believe in and I just sort of
thrown them both out like I rebelled
against the idea of tradition when I
should have been rebelling against
certain way
of experiencing certain traditions
Valentine's Day for me personally has
always sort of seemed like a blah thing
the way that people do it but I do like
there being an opportunity for me to
like a write a card to Catherine telling
her that I love her and why and why
she's so great but kind of because we
don't like the traditional way of
celebrating that tradition we kind of
don't at all whereas maybe we should
maybe we should find our own way of
doing let's get a babysitter to just
stay downstairs while we watch all of
the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice for
the 85th time but Esther did when she
requested that we celebrate her birthday
by celebrating familial love was genius
so somehow there wasn't a day for that
that tradition didn't exist but it like
needed to maybe in the past it didn't
need to maybe it did but like it does
because things are more true when we say
them out loud and they're definitely
more true when we hear them John I
appreciate you so much you're a good
person and a hard worker and a great dad
I love you and I'm so glad that you're
part of my life I love working with you
and I love working to make our
relationship strong I would literally
never say any of that if there wasn't a
tradition right but now ten years in it
is a tradition for me and it's normal
for me so to the people who aren't John
whether this is your first or your tenth
take some time send a text or an email
or a phone call or a gosh-darn letter
tell those people who you think probably
know it already that you love them
because even if they know they're gonna
love hearing it John I'll see you on
Tuesday