Counselors, don your capes...

Too often attorneys (at least certain breeds of attorneys) behave like their mission is to save the world. Now, a recently established blog combines legal issues and superheros, as noted in this New York Times piece.

Although the blog considers the application of real-world law to imaginary comic-book situations, the authors have a semi-serious angle:

"I think we both hope the blog has a certain educational component," such as insight into the thought process of attorneys in dealing with legal problems, says one of the two bloggers.

Living to 100 and beyond

I just finished reading If I Live to Be 100, the 2002 book by Neenah Ellis, based on her public radio series. She recounts numerous interviews of Americans from across the country who lived to be 100 years old or older.

In addition to meeting a fascinating variety of people, Ellis reflects on and reveals her own personal thoughts on aging, relationships, and self-identity. Here's a short sample from the introduction:

As I was listening to their life stories, I realized that I was being given the chance to choose my own future . . . . By lining my life up alongside theirs, I got a better idea of where I might be headed. I'd always had a sense of my life as a leaf floating down a river, on a course that seemed unalterable, but suddenly, in my mid-forties, I felt the need to make more choices: I could decide what sort of old person I wanted to be.

In a similar vein, check out the Dallas News piece on 30 ways to live to be 100. All of the suggestions are great, but my favorites are "dance, sing" and "find passion for the little things in life."

Pet poetry

Tails of the City, the San Francisco Chronicle pet blog, recently ran a pet haiku contest. Here are the results.

Here's one of the submissions that I particularly like:

Dogs wait patiently / With their origami ears / Folded precisely. -J. Fenton

Lots of hub-bub about same-sex marriage

First, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down that state's statutory ban on same-sex marriage on April 2.

Next, on April 5, the Vermont house and senate passed legislation, overriding the governor's veto, to allow same-sex marriage.

Check out today's New York Times article on the move toward equality flowing through Iowa, Vermont, and beyond.

Just for a bit more fodder, consider how the cultural definition of marriage is shifting, as discussed in this article from Slate.com. In looking at how various dictionaries have expanded their definitions of marriage, the article comments:

[F]or those judges who are open to the notion that statutory and constitutional meaning can change over time, the dictionary acceptance of same-sex marriage will offer evidence of a shift in public views. Instead of fending off or ignoring the dictionary, gay advocates will be able to cite the new editions in their briefs. The new entries in Webster's, Black's, and soon the OED signal that the idea of same-sex marriage has come of age. The Supreme Court cited an "emerging awareness" that gay people shouldn't be treated like criminals in striking down remaining state sodomy laws in 2003. Now the dictionaries herald the same kind of "emerging awareness" about gay marriage.

“Couldn’t be happier for two people I’ve never met!”

Consider this New York Times story about blogger Ann Althouse and Laurence Meade, one of her regular commenters. They are now engaged to be married! The Times article traces their online exchanges, in-person meetings, and the cyber-swirl that went on around them.

When the couple announced their engagement, another regular commenter commented, "Couldn't be happier for two people I've never met!"

By the way, Ms. Althouse is a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, from which I recently graduated. As it happens, I never had a class with her or even met her. However, I had read her blog frequently before applying to law school, and it gave me a window into both the law and blogging.

In her blog, Althouse also compiled links to her entries referred to in the Times piece.

Congratulations, Ann and "Meade."

A bittersweet Civil War story

Errol Morris, in the New York Times, wrote a five-part series on Amos Humiston, a Civil War soldier who died on the battlefield in Gettysburg. Humiston, unknown when his body was found, was clutching a photograph of his three children when he died.

The series, "Whose Father Was He?" looks at the initial history of identifying the fallen soldier (part one).

In part two, Morris interviews Mark Dunkelman, the author of a book about Humiston, including how Dunkelman found the current Humiston descendants.

Next (part three), Morris explores Gettysburg war photography and the attempt to assist the orphaned children of the dead soldiers.

Part four discusses the uneven (to say the least) administration of the orphanage and the enigmatic character who founded it.

Finally, Morris attempts to discover who Amos Humiston was as a person by piecing together all the known information about him (part five).

My "simple probate" article from the Wisconsin Law Review

In case you are suffering from insomnia, I offer this aid--my published student comment from the Wisconsin Law Review, "A 'Simple' Probate Should Not Be This Complicated: Principles and Proposals for Revising Wisconsin's Statutes for Probate Summary Procedures." Granted the topic has limited appeal (probate attorneys, possibly legislators with too much time on their hands, and the aforementioned insomniacs), but the article explains the quirks of the current system in Wisconsin for settling small estates and offers ideas for improvements.

The article considers "law-in-action" (which is a hallmark of the University of Wisconsin Law School approach) as evidenced by the variations from county to county and from attorney to attorney in how this system is used by practitioners.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is as lively as eight 5-year-olds (that's 40)

For anyone age 45 and younger, the children's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, was part of growing up. Its author and illustrator, Eric Carle, is profiled in a recent Newsweek story.

His 200-word story about a caterpillar who devours a sausage, a cupcake, a watermelon and more—there are holes drilled into the book to represent all that nibbling—celebrates its 40th anniversary this week. "

In addition to discussing Carle's literary work, the Newsweek story tells of his childhood in Nazi Germany where he was able to connect with art in spite of Hitler's reign of totalitarian control. Ultimately, Carle ended up in the United States, working as a graphic artist and illustrator.

[At 80 years old now,] Carle seems to have reached a sweet spot in his life—he posted a picture on his blog recently of him eating breakfast with a spoonful of his favorite food: Black Forest honey. "I'm very happy," he says. "In fact, I told my wife I've never been so happy." It might have taken him 40 years, but Eric Carle is finally as free as a butterfly.

Memories and metaphors after good-bye

In this reflection on Slate.com, Meghan O'Rourke tells of her metaphor for her mother immediately following her mother's death:

I went outside onto my parents' porch without putting my coat on. The limp winter sun sparkled off the frozen snow on the lawn. "Please take good care of my mother," I said to the air. I addressed the fir tree she loved and the wind moving in it. "Please keep her safe for me."

. . .

The truth is, I need to experience my mother's presence in the world around me and not just in my head. Every now and then, I see a tree shift in the wind and its bend has, to my eye, a distinctly maternal cast. For me, my metaphor is—as all good metaphors ought to be—a persuasive transformation. In these moments, I do not say to myself that my mother is like the wind; I think she is the wind. I feel her: there, and there.

In a similar vein, Alan Jones wrote a reflection upon his retirement as dean of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. He commented that writing one's own obituary is an interesting exercise to gain clarity of one's priorities and purpose in life. Here is a poem he wrote about his own obituary writing exercise:

Pescadero--on Writing My Obituary

The instructions read,
"Only two hundred words."
The music of the movie, Shadowlands
contradicts my old dislike of Lewis,
his moralisms always hitting where it hurt.
Now--writing of my death--
I think he's right.--
At least he saw
glory in the noche oscura.

The dying sun
here in Richard's house
softly lights the Buddha's way,
filling me with an unbuddhist ache
of contented longing,
in the cycle of attachment.

The Zen bells ring,
telling me that while no meeting
in my life was insignificant,
the past is past.

Alone in the nunc eternum
of this moment,
I am surrounded
by clouds of witness.
My obituary written,
I live, for this moment,
on the other side of death,
with Buddha and his consort
in this Japanese retreat.
Mary and her Son
still keep me company,
teaching me to hope--
loving all sentient beings,
and being loved in return,
I see karma and providence
marry in the light of the fading sun.

(Photo by annia316 ღ ; used by permission.)

Even panhandlers need copy editors

As an attorney who drafts numerous intricate legal documents, I pay close attention to word choices and usage.

And now, with the President's stimulus package getting so much attention, the New York Times looked at how even the signs that city panhandlers hold can reflect the current state of the economy. In place of a sign simply stating, "Homeless. Please help." the writer prepared new signs saying, "Please Support Pres. Obama’s Stimulus Plan, and begin right here … at the bottom … Thank you."

Shortly after the new signs were unveiled, it was too soon to determine the full effectiveness of the new wording, but at least a couple panhandlers had received more contributions.

(Photo by Brennan Cavanaugh.)

The difference "-ly" makes

In my law school elder law class, we discussed how being an "elder" is often honored and admirable, but "elderly" is nearly a derogatory term.

Jane Gross's New York Times blog, the New Old Age, includes this discussion about terms often used for elders in our society.

The International Longevity Center in New York City and the Aging Services of California have compiled a stylebook "to guide media professionals through the minefield of politically correct and politically incorrect ways of identifying and portraying the elderly."

For example,

[In addition to sparing use of "elderly," and avoiding "senior citizen" and "golden years,"] “feisty,” “spry,” “feeble,” “eccentric,” “senile” and “grandmotherly” are also unwelcome terms, patronizing and demeaning, as is calling someone “80 years young.”

The "Wollongong Senior Citizens Centre" photo is just for kicks. Maybe it should be reworded, "Older Adults Centre"?

(Photo by vanessapr; used by permission.)

Poetry to cope with one's mortality

In an essay that pays tribute to a friend who died of cancer, a writer in the New York Times magazine shared how her friend's poetry expressed the "clarity" cancer brought to his life.

She quotes her friend, Jason Shinder: "Cancer is a tremendous opportunity to have your face pressed right up against the glass of your mortality."

In a brief poem, he expressed his inner fear of his disease:

I've been avoiding my illness

because I'm afraid

I will die and when I do,

I'll end up alone again.

However, his journals of poems also express his philosophical belief in hope and something bigger than self:

"The hours are left for vanishing and also for joy and for blessing and gratitude."

(Photo by Deb; used by permission.)