Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Goodbye

From time to time I think back to my early years in law practice. As I am sitting here conducting administrative law hearings I see a variety of lawyers and a variety of skill levels. When I see the struggling newbies I am reminded of myself of me as I started out. When I see the experienced and practiced professional smoothly handle a case I think back to the first law firm I worked at as a lawyer.

For 14 years I was part of Farhat, Tyler and Associates. Farhat, Joe Farhat was indelibly memorable. What I remember most about Joe was the intensity he brought to everything. He was demanding, he was calculating and he wanted to win. He wanted to win in negotiations. He wanted to win in the courtroom. He wanted to win in even the simplest of social exchanges..

Joe never wanted to be unprepared or surprised. He demanded we be prepared before walking into a motion. He wanted each and every nuance of what could blow up to be picked apart beforehand. Why? Well because he wanted to be the one left standing after the battle. Most of the time we prevailed. If we had been a hockey team we would have made the playoffs just about every year. Most of the time Joe the coach, the master of the team, was able to see the bigger picture. Joe got the lay of the whole chessboard..

Working to win, and you have to work to win when your name is on the door requires focus and aggression. Working to win requires an instinctual lightness like a boxer floating at the edge of the ring just waiting to deliver the KO punch. And the KO punch has got to be there. Most of the time the punches he threw, the punches we threw as a firm, landed solidly..

Watching Joe work was a master’s class in how to manage a litigation practice in a small firm. Watching him work new clients was a master’s class in how to sustain a steady stream of business. Watching Joe watching the world around him was a lesson in mental acuity. .

I didn’t always like what I went through working for Joe for he was a hard taskmaster. But I don’t think I would have had the career I have now without that training. He left too soon, far too soon.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Richard Thompson

On this Friday morning I am taking some time off from chores to import music onto my computer’s hard drive. Even with my hearing dissipating I still love music. Picking choices is sometimes easy and sometimes not.

As I was going through my collection I noticed the large selection of Richard Thompson CDs that were stacked up there. No hesitation some of these are going on the old hard drive.

I discovered Richard Thompson when I was 16 years old and listening to the radio in the metro Philadelphia area. Michael Tearson now of Sirius XM was a big fan as was Luke O’Reilly. These disc jockeys played songs like Matty Groves and Sloth repeatedly.

To be 16 and hear Matty Groves a variant of Child Ballad #81 all electrified and just so freakin’ full of energy was transformative. It turned me from someone who listened with music in the background as I washed the dishes to a fanatic who wanted to both hear those ringing guitars loud and to ferret out the nuance of every lyric. Richard Thompson was not long for the band but while he was there oh how it soared.

As I departed the east coast and headed to the heartland for college I kept up with Richard’s music. I bought various Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews efforts on which Richard played his unmistakable electric lead guitar in the background. I picked up solo albums and albums he did with his wife. “I Want to See the Bright Lights” tonight was amazing.

As his marriage dissolved I grabbed a copy of “Shoot Out the Lights.” To this day it is one of my most favorite albums ever. The pain, the passion, the rage that played out in that studio and found its way onto the LP made for transcendent listening.

Richard is aging as we all are. I don’t know how much longer he will be touring. If you get a chance I urge you to go and see him especially if he is performing and acoustic show near you.

The Prayer of Mere Existence

Friday morning. I took today off. My thought had been to escape for the weekend. Alas that will not happen. Others have exams, exams to prepare for and demonstrations to oversee. This leaves me home and I think I shall turn inward.

In the mundane there rests a divinity true and profound. With each chore we perform of cleansing, cooking, arranging and planning for day to day living we engage a spiritual dimension. In our acts of putting food together and of making the bed we join with millions of others in rituals of life. These repetitive practices are prayers to our existence. Things like hanging linens out to dry and scrubbing the knives are acts that imply we have faith that we are moving forward.

Looking out the window I see my neighbors grass is vibrant and verdantly green. It almost glows in the gorgeous light of morning. Tomorrow my neighbor or my neighbor’s child will mow that lawn. From putting the gasoline in the mower to checking the oil to walking the yard to pick up sticks and rocks the process is a meditation on the continuation of life.

We forget these are prayers and we most certainly confuse them with burdens. To be alive is to be in contemplation of the greater things.