fire, ice and life
He was exquisitely composed, even as the action swirled furiously around him.
A point guard has to be, you see. He’s the leader, the rudder, the guy who sets the tone, rallies the troops, leads the charge.
That was Brian Justice, Collegiate Class of ’85, back in the day. He ran the show. Few, before or since, have run it better.
He was, at his best, Fire and Ice.
The Fire was never more evident than in the semifinal game of the Prep League basketball tournament his senior year. The Cougars faced Norfolk Academy, 28-2 before that fateful Friday night. Justice & Co. checked in at 12-10.
In one of the greatest games ever played in the Jacobs Gym, the Cougars prevailed 70-62. It was an upset of epic proportions.
“Collegiate just played super,” Dave Trickler, the very gracious NA coach, told a Richmond News Leader reporter afterwards. “We made them play a great game, and they did.”
Justice, an All-Prep selection in ‘85, scored 28 points and, by necessity, controlled the ball maybe 80 percent of the time that night. Michael Brost and Trip Featherston, his teammates then, his colleagues now, were among his outlets when the NA defense cornered him.
“There was nothing different about the game until it actually started,” Brost recalled. “Then, you could see something different. Brian didn’t go into the game intending to take it over, but he realized that’s what he needed to do if we were to win. He was definitely in the moment. You could tell he really embraced taking responsibility of leading us to victory.”
The Ice manifested itself well beyond his poise under physical pressure.
Somehow, amidst the otherworldly tension and drama, Justice was impeccable, uncanny even, from the free throw line. When he toed the mark, he was, in his mind, alone in an empty gym. Distractions? What distractions? He was truly in his zone. Was he preternaturally calm? Was serenity part of his DNA?
“I think it was more training than DNA,” he said one day recently. “I’d been exposed to spiritual practices that could helped me control my emotions and focus on what I could control and let go of those things which I couldn’t control.
“Shooting and making free throws was something I could control. The crowd, the game situation, the time of day…those were beyond my control. Meditation, mindfulness were practices that helped me in that athletic situation and in other life situations too.”
Which brings us to today, 32 years to the day after the Cougars staged that against-all-odds upset that those involved remember as if it occurred just last week.
This morning, Justice, an Upper School history and religion teacher and assistant varsity boys basketball coach, spoke to the Middle School assembly about Buddhism, a subject he’s studied deeply and often reflected upon over the years.
“For most of my adulthood, I’ve been a practicing member of the Episcopal church but have been a long-time student of Christianity and world religions in general,” he explained. “Ever since my education at Collegiate, I’ve been exposed to a lot of interesting books and historical, religious, and philosophical traditions.
“(The study of world religions) is intellectually interesting and compelling. More than that, religion has real-life importance and applicability and can provide many of the tools, practices, and outlooks that can help in turbulent times.”
Bob Lemire, a Collegiate history teacher in the ’80’s, introduced Justice to the works of Thomas Merton, a Roman Catholic monk and writer.
“It turns out that he (Merton) was also interested in the world’s traditions: finding out what common spiritual practices they teach and elucidate,” Justice continued. “I read his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, which was a fascinating story of his spiritual journey.
“Reading more of his work, I became exposed to Buddhism. That became an intellectual interest as well. I’ve read and studied widely in Buddhism as well as Christianity for many years and have found that intellectually interesting and personally helpful, transformative, comforting, and empowering, all at the same time.”
Justice earned two degrees from the University of Virginia: BA in history and MA in religious studies. In both programs, he focused on the study of religious heritages.
In his presentation before the Middle School in Oates Theater, he shared three stories from the Buddhist tradition.
The first centered around the life of The Buddha: his discovery of suffering and his quest to find liberation in suffering. The second was a parable about mindfulness, specifically staying in the moment. The third was a story compassion.
“I hope that they’ll be able to apply the teaching in the stories right away,” Justice said. “Just like me standing at the free throw line, there’re things you can control and things you can’t control. You can control your focus. Each of them is able to focus on the present. In that moment, they can be compassionate or not. I hope they’ll choose compassion and in doing so make their moment, their school day, just a little bit better, a little bit happier.
Two years ago, Justice used an Alumni Grant for Faculty Excellence to pen the book All the Singing, One Song, a handbook about world religions.
“I wanted to produce a book that I could use in my classroom and might be helpful to the Collegiate community and beyond,” he explained. “Religious literacy is good and constructive. We live in a world that’s more diverse and interconnected than ever. To have knowledge of different cultures, religions, and spiritual and cultural traditions is essential not only to economic, political, and social harmony but to human interaction, empathy, and understanding.
“I take the Jeffersonian view that education is better than ignorance. If we can learn more about other people, traditions, societies, and places, let’s learn. Let’s choose education. Whatever any individual’s spiritual practice or outlook or belief system is, in learning about others, they’ll learn that we have more in common as human beings than we have differences.”
