Following the Rules

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."- William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Act IV, Scene II 

When I became a paralegal last year, I swore an oath agreeing to abide by the rules imposed on paralegals and lawyers by the Law Society of Upper Canada.  One of those rules is that I am not allowed to make disparaging remarks about my colleagues in the profession.  I take my oath seriously and I work hard to abide by the rules.  Sometimes it's harder than at other times.  This week put me to the test.

I spent the whole day on Tuesday at a Labour Board hearing.  It's a complicated case involving three parties.  One of the parties is comprised of a rather unsophisticated group of men from northern Ontario.  They are solid, hard working people who have found themselves in an unenviable position caught between business and a big union.  I won't go into details but suffice it to say that much of this case reinforces the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished.

So far there have been fourteen days of hearings in the case.  On Tuesday, we had one witness, a 67-year-old man who was out of his depth and scared half-to-death. He started his testimony at 9:30 A.M. and finished at 5:00 P.M.  In the morning he gave his evidence.  In the afternoon he was cross-examined by the Union's lawyer.  With the first question, it was evident the lawyer was going for the jugular.  It was a tough afternoon.

When I left the hearing around 5:30 P.M. I felt a bit depressed.  I realize it may be a naive notion to think that lawyers are in the business of helping people.  The other lawyers present sure didn't have a problem with the actions of the Union lawyer.  They thought he had done a good job.  They say he is a good lawyer and they're probably right.  But I didn't see justice served in the badgering of a 67-year-old labourer who left drained and shaking for his long drive home.  Doing it might make him a good lawyer but it doesn't seem to me that it makes him a very good man.

Five Pairs of Shoes

'The time has come,' the walrus said,' to talk of many things: of shoes and ships - and  sealing wax - of cabbages and kings.'  - Lewis Carroll

When Jacob was home last summer, he was in the habit of leaving five pairs of shoes at the front door.  Day after day, I would move the shoes from the front foyer to his bedroom.  Within hours, it seemed, those five pairs of shoes would find their way back to the front door.  In the last couple of weeks he was home, I decided to leave the shoes where they were, suspecting somehow that I would miss seeing them there when I came home after he had returned to school.  And I was right.  In those first weeks he was back in Guelph, I did experience pangs everytime I walked in to the very tidy foyer.


Yesterday I brought Jacob home for the summer.  The house came alive the moment he walked in the door.  We unloaded my packed car and I left Jacob to put his things away while I went to visit my mother.  When I returned home, I was greeted by five pairs of shoes at the front door.  There is a lot of time between now and next September when he returns to school.  And so the shoe wars will begin anew.  I will move the shoes to his room and be unsurprised when they find their way back to the front door.  And in the middle of August, I will no doubt resign myself to leaving them there knowing I will miss seeing them when he is back at school in September.

Pennies and Peace Signs

"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project."  - Napoleon Hill

It's been a busy week since Merv left for a Florida vacation on Monday.  Not only have I been busy with work, but I hosted a dinner party and used my time alone in the house to work on some projects.  A couple of weeks ago, I found a small table at Value Village.  Initially I stained the table black intending to finish it with a copper glaze before I covered the top of it with pennies.  But after a thorough search, I wasn't able to find copper glaze in Canada so instead, I bought liquid copper gilt and applied it to the whole table.  It looks great.  Once it was cured, I spent a few hours arranging and gluing pennies to cover the top of the table.  Though time consuming and fussy, it was a fun project.

After a long overdue appointment with my hairdresser, I headed to the bead store yesterday to pick up some stones for a birthday gift I'm making for Geraldine.  While I was there I spotted some brightly coloured dyed-turquoise beads that had been cut in the shape of a peace sign.  I was instantly hit with the notion of making a rosary with the stones the basis for which would be that it would be a rosary to use when praying for peace.  It took me a couple of hours last night to make the rosary.  It's enormous but really quite wonderful.  I made it while I watched events unfold in Boston.  If there ever was a time to pray for peace, this feels like it.

This afternoon Geraldine and I completed some of her outstanding projects - a lovely mixed stone rosary for her friend and a trio of bracelets for her daughters.  It was a nice way to pass the afternoon, talking and creating.    When I go to bed tonight, I know I will feel satisfied that there are some things in the world that will mark my presence here.

Why?

“What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.”  - David Levithan, Love Is the Higher Law

I can't seem to come up with a reason for the bombings at the Boston Marathon yesterday.  No one has claimed responsibility so there is no point-of-view from which to try and understand why it happened.  If it wasn't about religious zealotry or some convoluted political view, what could it possibly be about?  Targeting marathon runners, their families and supporters doesn't send a message I can even pretend to understand. 


Like everyone else, I am inspired by the actions of the people who were present at the bombings and those who live in the city.  It wasn't just first responders who selflessly jumped into action at great personal risk.  There are wonderful stories being told today of ordinary people who committed extraordinary acts of bravery from the young man who threw himself on a woman and two small children after the second bomb because he feared there would be a third, to the runners who tore the shirts off their backs to apply as tourniquets to save the wounded.  And then there are the thousands of Bostonians who offered meals and beds to those who had been displaced by the closure of twelve city blocks and could not return to their hotels or apartments.


Beyond these things, I was impressed with the restraint shown by much of the media.  I have seen few reporters or pundits jump to conclusions about the source of these attacks.  In the coming days, we will find out who was responsible.  Whether it was at act of foreign religious fundamentalists or home grown political nuts, three people will be just as dead, 150 people just as injured. 


In time the city will heal and maybe even become a little closer, a little more loving in the process. They will be scarred and maybe even scared but they will heal.  I'm praying for them all.

Mildly A-MUSE-d

They will not force us,
They will stop degrading us,
They will not control us,
We will be victorious.
- Lyrics to Uprising by MUSE

 We were clearly the oldest people in the house at the Air Canada Centre last night.  For Christmas I gave Merv a pair of tickets to see MUSE.  I had never heard of MUSE before we attended The Who concert at the ACC last November.  Upcoming concerts were being advertised and when Merv saw that MUSE was coming, he proclaimed how much he would love to see them.  So I bought tickets for him, hoping that Jacob would be finished exams and able to go with his dad to see a group they both enjoy.  It didn't turn out that way so last night, I accompanied Merv.  My ears are still ringing.

I've never been a big fan of hard rock - even when I was young.  The warm up act last night was a Scottish group called Biffy Clyro. They were definitely hard rock though a couple of times I almost caught the drift of a tune.  I didn't know what to expect from MUSE.  I was prepared for the fact that they probably would be a little harder than suits my taste.  They were a little harder than I had expected.  At one point they played "Madness" and I vaguely recognized the song.  That would be as close as I would come until the closing number "Uprising" which I sang along to.  I don't know why I know the song "Uprising" but I do.  I know the tune and I know the lyrics to the chorus.  Other than that, it was two hours of noise.  Through that time I frequently reminded myself to find my Zen space and stay there - a challenge at times when the bass guitar was reverberating so loudly that my sternum was vibrating.

The concert wrapped up shortly after ten o'clock.  Merv loved it and at the end of the day, that's all that really counts.  I won't be rushing out to buy a MUSE CD but I survived.  If only my ears would stop ringing.

Sleeping with Dora

“The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up, such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off.  A dog's wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has it's own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It's like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.” - Terry Pratchet

Dora's humans are away so she is spending a week at our place.  It's meant some good long walks and lots of cuddles when we're at home.  It's also meant sleeping in the guest room.  Dora is a cute, if somewhat spoiled, little pup.  When she's in her own home, she sleeps in bed with her humans.  I know she needs this same comfort when she is staying here but I also know there is no way Merv is going to have a dog in his bed so Dora and I are exiled to the guest room.  Geraldine warned me before they left that Dora has been getting up around 2:30 A.M. for a foray outside.  Brian takes her.  I told Ger that wouldn't be happening in my house.  I have no interest in getting up to take her out in the middle of the night.  So I've been taking her out before we go to bed, around midnight.  The first night, she slept soundly until 7 o'clock.  But we had a bit less success last night.  It was sometime after 5 o'clock but still long before the sun rose that Dora licked my face and jumped off the bed.  I wasn't especially happy but I got up, put my coat on over my pajamas and headed outside.  Dora wanted to take a walk.  I wanted her to pee so I could go back to bed.  Neither of us got our wish.  I refused to walk her and she refused to pee on our lawn.  After a contest of wills, I gave up, brought her in and went back to bed.  But I was freezing, ticked off and wide awake by then so I found myself unable to go back to sleep.  I got up and made coffee.  Dora went back to bed.  An hour later, I got her up and took her out again to the lawn, again with my coat over my shorty pajamas.  She peed and ran back up the steps to the house, ate her breakfast, took her meds and went back to sleep.

The good news is that we're finally going to hit double digit temperatures today.  That will make the walking more enjoyable.  It was a beautiful morning yesterday but the sub-zero temperature was a bit hard to take.  I did see an absolutely beautiful woodpecker in the park, just a couple of feet from where we were walking.  Later in the morning, three deer ambled through the ravine behind our house.  I took those sightings as hopeful signs of spring.  In a little while, I'll slip my walking shoes on and Dora and I will head out to see what other signs we can see this morning.  Beautiful birds, budding trees and early spring flowers will all be worthy of admiration.