News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:
WASHINGTON, D.C.—It was quite a spectacle at the Senate hearing for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court this morning, as Judge Barrett calmly answered the committee’s questions while cooking dinner for her family of nine with her right hand and typing up an appellate court decision with her left hand.
“That’s a great question, Senator, thank you for asking,” she responded to one line of questioning as she chopped up onions to put them in her stew. “Sorry if I’m crying during my response — it’s just the onions.” She eloquently answered the inquiry while moving on to skinning the potatoes, simultaneously typing up a 50-page decision for the Seventh Court of Appeals with her other hand.
Go here to read the rest. There was a judge in the area in which I live, long since deceased, who had quite a reputation among the local bar for his scholarship, ability and judicial demeanor. He received some notoriety for a multiple murder trial he presided over which received national and international attention. He never sought a higher judicial office, content with being a local trial judge. He had retired shortly before I began to practice. Years ago I was doing some legal work for one of his daughters and asked about him. She said that he never spoke about being a judge at home, and that until she was in high school she wasn’t even aware of him being a judge. She said that to her he was just Dad, and that he had been a very good Dad. The best among us, and I think Judge Barrett is in that category, always remember that whatever our careers may be, our most important roles begin when we go home.
A few years ago I befriended a great man. Small in stature but huge in heart. His life started out tough. An orphan, he was abused at the hands of some foster parents, which lead him on to running the rails as a homeless teen in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Finally, a Christian couple spotted him and invited him into their home. They adopted him. He finally had love in his life. He graduated from High School, University and became a lawyer. He presided over the 87th district as a Judge. He shared a wealth of knowledge and intriguing stories with his caregiver and friend for a handful of years before his passing. He was blessed and blessed me with his smile and wisdom.
Judge Orman Danford, RIP, said this;
“Philip. Some days the gavel was too heavy to lift off my desk. I had to excuse myself from the bench and walk across the street to the Church. I would sit for some time..listening to my Lord. He took over. He picked up the gavel when I couldn’t.”
God bless you faithful lawyers.
Philip, thanks for sharing. One can learn many interesting things by listening to elders in assisted living, rehab and skilled nursing. That goes for listening to the staff members also. I had the best time with my mother’s 99 yo childhood friend, Margaret, as we poured over 3 of her family picture albums. She and my mother were born in 1915. I was amazed at her recall of names even of her parents generation. Every night she said the Divine Mercy Chaplet for those souls who would die that day.
Thank you CAM.
Margaret was a co-redeemer, as we too should be while we sojourn here.
The twenty years I’ve spent ministering to our elder brothers and sisters has been precious.
To hear their stories and see in there eyes a youth that hasn’t been dulled by age, is amazing. Nearly sixty years old myself, I’m so much younger in my spirit than in my body.
If ninety years is allotted I shiver to think of the broken body however I suppose that my spirit will still be young.
That’s what I see through the eye’s of our elderly. A window open into the past and eternal. A holy spirit.