Saturday, August 14, 2004

Still Children

Do you recall as child, or have you observed children, bickering, appealing to their parent, or some adult in supposed authority over them?  You know; Mommy, Johnny did so and so and said a bad word, or, Johnny has my such and such and won’t let me play with it.  Mommy, or the authority figure, indubitably, will mediate the situation, creating a temporary peace or solution to the problem at hand.  Of course, this temporary peace or solution usually won’t take hold until the children have exhausted their store of shrillness, oceans of faux tears, and circular arguments.

Sitting in courtroom 6D, yesterday, awaiting my call to the bench, struck me as quite similar in nature.  One hears much the same type of childish argumentation presented to the judge, a he said she said type of thing, over items such as an entertainment center, a big screen teevee, or a house.  The judge looms over the the legal counselors with their children by their sides; in this case individuals approaching the age of fifty; now, nowing at times like a patient parent, and at other times like an imperial wizard, cautioning Johnny, or Betty Sue, to play nice or not talk out of turn, or urging the counselors to keep their children under control.  I found it all quite sordid and unbearable to listen to, and I was embarrassed, to tell the truth, that I had to take my turn in front of the bench, like a penitent, appealing for protection from the neighborhood bully.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/14 at 02:19 PM
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