Good morning, Hank. It's Tuesday, August third, 2017. It's Esther Day! So seven years ago today, our friend, Esther Earl, made a video where she said in part, "I love my sisters. I love my brothers. I love my dad. I love my mom. I love my pets; they are included in the family category. I love my friends. My friends are amazing: the ones I've met online and the ones I still have IRL." Esther died a few weeks later when she was just sixteen and every year we pause on August third, her birthday, to celebrate Esther Day, a celebration of love in all its many splendors and Esther wanted us to pay special attention to the kinds of non-romantic love that often go unacknowledged in our culture: love among family and friends.

So, Hank, with that noted, I love you. I so admire your hard work, your relentless pursuit of decreasing worldsuck, your love and kindness and patience as a son and father and husband and brother. I think you're amazing and I love you and I will not say that again for a year. 

In honor of Esther Day, I hope all of you will take a moment to tell people in your lives that you love them, even if it's hard to do, in fact, especially if it's hard to do.

After Esther died her family created This Star Won't Go Out, a charity that has helped many many families of kids with cancer. But, this year, This Star Won't Go Out is expanding its mission in a way Esther would have loved with something called Project Lovely. That logo by the way was made by Emily Cole with a font made from Esther's actual handwriting. So you can find out much more about this at projectlovely.org, but basically people between the ages of thirteen and thirty can apply for a five thousand dollar grant to do something to make the world better. It can be anything that will make the world better. You can apply at projectlovely.org Two people will be chosen and given five thousand dollars and then we'll follow their projects. Esther loved the Project for Awesome and Harry Potter Alliance initiatives and I think this is a really beautiful way for her family and friends to continue her legacy and, if you want to contribute to This Star Won't Go Out, you can do so at tswgo.org I also highly recommend Esther's memoir, This Star Won't Go Out. It's a beautiful book available wherever books are sold.

Thanks to Esther and her amazing family for continuing to inspire our community. Happy Esther Day, everybody. Hank, I look forward to saying I love you again in just 365 short days. I will see you tomorrow.