Karlee Takes After Her Mother

Karlee has been conditioned to respond to certain questions in the same fashion and often with the same vocabulary that Kim employs. For example, I have been laying next to Karlee at bedtime in an effort to calm her down before she goes to bed. These nightly conversations are a treasure to me because we often discuss her day, the next day's plans, and choices good and not good in review for the day. Tonight was a classic of all of the above:

Me: Karlee what are you going to do tomorrow?

Karlee: Mommy and me are going to the library, and paint? You come?

Me: I can't, daddy has to go to work.

Karlee: (thinking for a moment) You have to go to work. . . (becoming very serious) don't take the car!

Somehow I think Kim has prepped her to certain stimulus.  If dad does or says anything that might involve stranding the girls at home, tell him to change his plans. And Karlee has learned to tell me how to behave. I need this boy to join us to even the votes around here.

Law: The Philosophy of "The Hunt"

The Law is analogous to "the mighty hunt". In hunting each individual hunter seeks the ultimate prize in the form of the moose head, bear skin, or rack of antlers to display in the living room (or more appropriately the den . . . just seems more fitting a location). The epitome of success is defined by being the one and only to capture the foe so as to be able to display your hunting prowess through some sort of status symbol to the world. Ego seems to be the greater motive as only so many neighbors are willing to eat squirrel flavored meat and even when they do accept it most let it sit in their garage freezers until that day comes when they know you are out of town and are free to chuck it into the garbage and roll it out to the curb for pickup.


In the Law the counsel representing each party (and often the parties themselves) in a dispute are each--through whatever means necessary--attempting to be the one and only to obtain the ultimate prize (multi-million dollar verdict). The process turns more into a battle between two children fighting over a stuffed animal where only one can have or hold the prize and the other ought to be left with nothing. So defines the adversarial model. Once obtained, the victor is less concerned about justice and more concerned with the symbol of success. Something must be broken.


Here is the problem . . . most legal disputes are more like the deer who never stops running (a moving target) so the hunter is unable to take the "kill shot" and instead the parties chase the ultimate prize, often for years, never reaching a satisfactory resolution. What is the ultimate result? Who cares that isn't what matters (have you learned nothing?). . . what matters is obtaining the ultimate prize so why worry about the costs in the form of finances or time that are wasted in chasing the moving target. Because of this model, I will one day be employed and paid money (let's hope enough to pay back Uncle Sam what I will owe him) to develop strategy to obtain the ultimate prize (or at least more than the other guy).


In the words of Paul Harvey . . .  "and now for the rest of the story."


I do not wish to sound disillusioned or turned off by the standard model from which attorneys work. As in fact I respect the system for what value it CAN have and look forward to the practice of law (though be it more likely transactional in nature). I Just wanted to point out that the next time Uncle John is boasting about his latest hunting trip success to think about the primeval motivations that serve as the foundation for how we as a people define "success". Then ask yourself this question . . . Are we right? Should success be based on the underlying objective of the law, business, and athletics. . . WINNING or should it be based on something else?

A new place to call home

The last couple of weeks have been crazy. Packing...moving...unpacking...and everything that goes with all of those. We moved into this cute little house that we will call home for the next two years. It's in a prime location. Just a short walk to the law school and Colonial Williamsburg. I'm so glad to be all moved in. We are just about all unpacked and it's nice to have that stress out of the way. Now we can get ready for my family to come in just a couple weeks and then the baby to come a couple weeks after that. So excited!!

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July. It was a hot and humid day. We went to Colonial Williamsburg and had a picnic with some friends and a BBQ that evening. We were going to go watch fireworks back at Colonial but decided not to. We were glad we didn't because it ended up getting rained out. Hope everyone had a great Independence day!

Cute Karlee and Dakota

Patriotic girls

Madison, Karlee, and Kota

Trying to keep cool.

Return of the . . .

About a year ago I was told that my blog posts were too "deep thinking" or not "entertaining enough." So rather than tweek what I believed to be a workable system, I just gave up posting all together on this blog and created a privately held and owner  read only blog (which admittedly sucked the fun out of posting altogether).  Today on the day we celebrate the birth of our great nation I have decided to return to our family blog in an effort to be more "reader friendly." [A great comeback of sorts I know, but please no comments about the lack of connection between my return to blogging and the actual birth of our nation as the only correlation is the fact that I spent my lunch hour on a picnic blanket at the capital of Colonial America and had this epiphany]

Now an update on me.  I am fine.  Thank you for wondering.