If I had to pick one word to describe Justin, I think I’d be faced with an impossible task. There was just too much to him to ever boil down to just one word…and he’d be sure to remind you of that too. If one word does pop into mind, however, it would be passionate. Justin was the consummate/ultimate fan. Poker, obviously, was tops. But not far behind was a barrage of other medium that he just adored. Music, movies, TV shows, radio shows, artists, authors, comedians. I could go on forever. Justin introduced me and I’m sure many of you to so many these things that he loved.
Over the past few days, I’ve realized just how many of the things I love in my life were given to me by Justin. Not long after I heard what happened, I turned on my ipod to shuffle (problem # 1, I know, Justin hated ipods…Zen music players all the way). Anyway, ipod on shuffle, and song after song after song…all from him. And I skipped past every single one. I couldn’t bear the memories that those songs brought flooding back. At first it was next to impossible, but as the week has drawn on, I’ve realized that all of the things Justin has introduced to me, and to all of you, are exactly the tools we need to cope with this. From the West Wing and Sports Night to Lost and Top Chef, to the best Coldplay and John Mayer songs no one has ever heard, to Demetri Martin, to random songs by Atlantic Starr and the New Radicals you never knew you liked so much, from Garden State and Swingers to Willy Wonka, Rad and The Newsies. Justin loved these things, and so so many more. He learned, laughed, cried and loved through the scope of these things that he loved and truly enjoyed seeing others enjoy them as much as he did. Now I know that the more I watch and listen to these, the less I’ll feel alone. I’ll be able to feel the passion that he felt for the things that he loved so much and wanted to share so badly. It was almost as if the passion and excitement he felt was too much for him to contain, that he just had to share it with others.
I’m going to end, fittingly, with a quote from a West Wing episode. Pretty much every time I watched an episode or clip with Justin, he declared it as one of his “favorite” Westi Wing moments, so it’s kind of relative. But this one always shone through, as his all-time favorite:
“This guy's walkin' down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, "Hey you! Can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, "Father, I'm down in this hole; can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey, Joe, it's me. Can ya help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are ya stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.” – Courtney Kissel