I have no words!
The average adult knows around 40,000 words. But how many of us can form a perfect sentence; and what do we look for in the written word?
During a long spell of lockdown I have: (1) enjoyed more Netflix (I can highly recommend Last Dance if you know nothing about Michael Jordan and basketball); (2) discovered a new passion for interior design (see photo); and (3) rediscovered the contents of my bookshelves. It is the last of those that I will talk about.
I’m not clear about what drew me to law as a second career, but I definitely have more of an affinity with a pen than with a paintbrush or a power tool. Words have made me laugh, and cry, have left me struggling to divine their intention, and they hold endless possibilities.
When it comes to humour, I have a kindred spirit in Charlie Brown: “Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask ‘Where have I gone wrong’, then a voice says to me ‘This is going to take more than one night’”.
If I am looking for encouragement, I recall Jack Reacher: “Hit them fast, hit them hard, and hit them a lot”.
If I am in a tight spot, I grab a Bear Grylls’ handbook: ‘Flying a helicopter is hard. But here’s how to increase those chances if you find yourself forced to take the controls of a chopper’.
Legal writing has an appeal when stripped bare. I recommend as a reference book any old version of Kelly’s Draftsman you can get hold of: ‘The (Party-B) shall discharge all claims made by any person in respect of any liability suffered…’). In the hands of a seasoned judge, words can read like the best John Grisham: ‘This is not a case where the husband’s lies were a false bolstering of an otherwise truthful case, or where he has tried to cover up matters that would bring upon him shame or disgrace. The lies were told in order to conceal the truth.’ Mostyn J.)
I recently purchased a second-hand copy of Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal consciousness among working class Americans (Merry S., 1990), a study in sociological jurisprudence, which is evidently a discard by the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The book contrasts ‘the plaintiffs…with a sense of entitlement to law’ and who ‘demand help in legal terms’, and the court, which ‘receives them with great ambivalence’, and which ‘imposes nonlegal interpretations on the problems’. In my experience, which is not in court work, this is how a day in the life of a typical non-contentious high street practitioner can play out, ‘a story of domination [lawyer] and resistance [client]’.
Having selected my reading for the day, if you were able to visit me at home, you might find me sitting, reading, sometimes snoozing, in ‘that chair (a chair so comfortable it left nothing to be desired)’ (Haruki Murakami).