Thank you to everyone that has supported us during this difficult time. Thank you to the protesters risking their bodies and health. Thank you to the medical professionals who are healing bodies or granting them peace. Thanks dad. You can see from the header that this letter is pretty special. It’s Game Night, and we’re all here. We are hoping that this tradition is still going strong in the future. All of us are contributing to this, but it’s Desmond doing the typing. The work never stops. Anyway, we just all learned from you kids a mystery that has been percolating in our households for a few years now and we just wanted to share the moment it all came together for the sake of posterity. We were playing Taboo and Shane was giving the clues to Randi, because of course you two were on the same team. He kept yelling Randi! Randi! And she was like, what? Say something! Give a clue! And Shane said I am! It’s your name! And she said I know my name! That’s not a clue! Now, you have no idea how entertaining it was to watch you two get so frustrated with one another, but finally the sand runs out and Jude, gleefully, presses the buzzer next to Shane’s ear. After we pulled the two of you apart we finally get to look at the card that started all of this. It was Marathon. One of the words on the card was “run”. Which got us all to thinking, where did that come from? One day that’s just what Shane called Randi and what Randi answered to and none of us had ever gotten around to asking where it came from? As you read this now, lord knows when, do you remember? Well, this is what you told us. One day Shane and Jude were having a discussion about nicknames and how they were’nt eligible. Because each of their names was one syllable and you don’t get to get a nickname if your name is one syllable, unless of course you just go by the first letter of your name. But Shane thought “S” just didn’t sound right and Jude thought “J” was cool, but always really liked Jude, and since it took the same amount of time to say, what was the point? Harrison chimed in with his disdain for Harry and offered that Randi didn’t get a nickname because she was a girl. This didn’t sit well with Shane. So you all started troubleshooting it. Eventually Harrison and Jude got bored and went off to break something valuable, as is their way. So the two of you, Randi and Shane, approached it “logically”. Shane thought the simplest route was to shorten Randi to Ran, but neither of you was convinced. Randi liked Dee, but Shane thought it was too girly. Randi didn’t like the sound of that, but Shane explained that it needed to sound like a boss, because, Randi was the boss. She disagreed, and thought girly and boss could be the same thing, but Shane didn’t want to belabor the point. Randi kept ticking off prototypes when she realized Shane hadn’t said anything in a while. When she looked up he was smiling. He said, Run. Randi needed convincing, so Shane explained. “Run” is “ran” but like now, instead of before. It’s in the present. It makes it sound like you’re fast. She was coming around, but she needed a nudge, and Shane provided one. He said, plus it’s like that rap group. Run DMC. Walk This Way he said. My Adidas he said. And then two things happened. One, Randi lit up because she liked the sound of that. She had just been staring down at the pair of Adidas on her feet and it all felt right, plus she loved those songs, and although she didn’t say it at the time, it meant a lot to her that Shane thought so long and hard about a nickname that was worthy of her. But the second thing that happened, and this is the most important, is that we, as your parents, realized we have been raising you right! Run DMC? We didn’t even know you’d been put on! The pride we feel in this moment, as your family, you have no idea. No matter where you are kids, know that we love you and we are so proud of you and now we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you will be okay, because your taste is impeccable, especially when it comes to one another.

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