Reflections of a Boston Lawyer

New Year's is a time to reflect on where we are and where we would like to go. Many of us make New Year's Resolutions, and many of us (myself included) fail to keep them for very long. While I could try again to do a better job with the usual suspects (eat less, exercise more, etc.), this year I'm going to try something different - I'm going to take some steps to change how I engage with the world of information. Perhaps it has happened too gradually for us to notice, but modern media has fundamentally changed the way many of us receive and respond to information. For some of us who use social media, every time we log in we are met with a barrage of often strongly worded viewpoints and angry screeds, which we sometimes are quick to republish for our friends and followers. For those of us who also have grown accustomed to the 24/7 world of cable news, we similarly are met with a constant flow of information and opinion, very often under the now-meaningless but still at

This is all you need to know. Truth is greater than falsehood. Love is greater than hate. Love is also greater than indifference. Peace is greater than war. Good prevails over evil. If not now, then later, and forever. And we are all in this crazy thing together.

Every day I see the products of human endeavor: buildings, roads, bridges, cars, trucks, planes, ships, among many other remarkable feats of engineering. Most mornings, I also have an opportunity to see the sunrise, many nights, the sunset, and every day, wonders like trees, grass, hills, ocean, river, birds and other animals. Sometimes these natural views are spectacular, and always they remind me of the majestic beauty of our planet and the cosmos. What has struck me recently is how much more I am inspired by nature than by anything built by human hands. I would much rather watch a sunrise than watch a plane take off or a cruise ship sail, amazing as those technical feats may be. And then I wonder why I don't spend more time in the outdoors - hiking, biking, going to the beach, or visiting national parks. I wonder, too, whether our tendency to invest more time and money in technology than in our environment (and often at the expense of our environment) reflects priorities that

There are many famous lines in Shakespeare, some of which are misunderstood when taken out of context. One such misunderstood line comes from the play "Twelfth Night," and is spoken by an obnoxious buffoon named Malvolio. He is a hapless steward in the household of Countess Olivia, and so disliked by other members of the household that they decide to play a trick on him. They deliver to him a love letter that they crafted but which purports to be from Olivia. The letter deceives him into believing that the Countess is in love with him, and sets him up for a humiliating fall. The line, seemingly, but mockingly, in praise of his high station, is: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them!" (The last part of the phrase has an intended sexual innuendo that, of course, was lost on the pompous fool.) Putting aside the letter's insincerity and innuendo, is there any truth to the premise that some are born great, some achie

Today I read a commentary from a lawyer named Elden Rosenthal in a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center. It is one of the most poignant expressions of the importance of the rule of law that I have read. According to the publication, Rosenthal is an attorney in Portland, Oregon and a member of the SPLC Board of Directors. In 1990, he served as co-counsel in the SPLC's lawsuit against a white supremacist and neo-Nazi leader after the beating death of an Ethiopian student. He writes of how the defendant's closing argument to the jury (which the defendant delivered pro se) reminded him of the rhetoric that preceded the Holocaust.  Now, almost three decades later, he hears similar rhetoric coming from the current administration in Washington. In both cases, the neo-Nazi then and the administration now, attacked lawyers, blaming them for the worsening economic conditions of white Americans.  He writes: Make no mistake about what is happening right now in America.  White

On a summer day, when my oldest child was very young (probably two or three years old), I put him in the child seat on my bike and took him for a ride. The weather was fine when we left our house, but after a few minutes it began to rain. Fortunately, a friend of mine happened by in his car just as the heavens opened. He pulled over, I unbuckled my son from the bike seat, and I handed my little boy to my friend. My son immediately began screaming as I gave him away to a person who to him was a perfect stranger. My friend drove off with his terrified passenger, and I rode my bike as fast as I could behind them in the pouring rain. When I got home, I was drenched, my son was shaking in his mother's arms, and my friend accepted our thanks for rescuing our precious little one from the storm. In the decades since that ill-fated ride, I never forgot the look of absolute terror in my son's face as I handed him over to a person he didn't know. I knew he would be home in short o