2025 Life Logs, Day 257: Happy Birthday to Justin
Date: Sunday, September 14, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 72, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Justice, like in ”indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” That is how my son Justin got his name. Mark and I searched and searched for a boy’s name and all we could come up with were two names: Erin, an Irish unisex name meaning “peace”, and Justice because Mark and I both believed that “justice for all” was critical for the survival of our democracy. Yes, it was 1977 when both peace and justice were being celebrated. Justice was Mark’s favorite, but I said it was too hard to say. I countered with Justin. When I was in late grade school, I came home from school every single day to watch American Bandstand. My favorite dancer was Justine. That led us from Justice to Justin. Not until after he was born and we took our first look at him did we settle on Justin. That is how Justin Bryant Handley, 48 years ago today at home in Jenkins, Minnesota, got his name. I honestly don’t know if he knows this story. If not, let this be his special birthday gift. In any case, Happy Birthday, Justin!
I picked Ollie up from his Scout camping trip this morning and picked Heather and Jed up in Woods Hole when they returned from their sailing trip to Padanarum and took them to their car in Quissett. Then tonight, I had dinner with my Dining-In group tonight. It was a good day.
I’ll end with a Sunday Thought from Robert Reich about things that hold us together as a country … shared commitments.
“Dear Friends,
After a horrifying week — horrifying not just because of a politically motivated assassination but also the brutish and angry response from people who should be pulling the nation together rather than adding fuel to its divisions — many of you are understandably worried about America’s future.
As I travel around the United States, I hear concerns that America is losing its identity.
But what is that identity? If you examine our history, you’ll see that the core of that identity has not been the whiteness of our skin, or the uniformity of our ethnicity, or agreement on religion, or like-mindedness about sexual preference or orientation.
The core of our national identity has been the ideals we share: our commitments to the rule of law, to democratic institutions of government, to truth, to tolerance of our differences, to equal political rights, and to equal opportunity.
We have not always achieved these ideals, to be sure, but most of us have been committed to seeking to achieve them. Indeed, generations of Americans have been willing to sacrifice their lives for these ideals.
These shared commitments inform our judgments about right and wrong. They constitute America. Without them, there is no “we” in We the People.
Trump and his lackeys want us to forget these shared commitments. He is using every tool at his disposal — even this past week’s heinous murder — to subvert them.
But We the People will not — must not — let him.”
