Pictures!

Pictures from my recent trip up Mt. Lemmon (~9000 ft).  It is the southernmost peak in the U.S. which is ski-able during the winter.

Also, my good friend Chris just left for South Africa and he is starting a blog about his experiences there.  Check it out to the left!

Amazingsuperpowers

For post-modern humor, check out amazingsuperpowers.com.

Almost three weeks in...

Okay, so I managed to sneak into the main room for the Breyer speech on Monday.  He is an engaging speaker and an amazing man.  He reminded me a lot of Marcus Borg, a Jesus scholar who used to teach philosophy classes at OSU and debate about Christianity in his spare time.  Borg has an infectious sort of charisma and Breyer is much the same.  That being said, I thought his speech, which revolved around the Dred Scott case, was mediocre.  He belabored the facts of the case too much and didn't get to his main point until last two minutes.  I wanted to hear him talk more about the Supreme Court as it is made up today and we didn't get much of that.

After my Constitutional Law class tomorrow, I will officially have finished three weeks of law school.  I haven't dropped out in favor of dental school yet but it has been interesting to watch my classmates.  At this point, there are basically three groups of people.  The first group (like myself) are leaning to love the law and really enjoying testing their mental capacity and trying to think in a new way, the second group are treading water and still trying to find their way, and the last group already are teetering on the brink of burnout.  It is going to be a long eight months for those people who are already complaining about law school every chance they get.

The Supreme Court Justice Cometh

I am sitting in the lobby of the law school amidst a buzz of excitement surrounding the upcoming arrival of Justice Stephen Breyer to give a talk on I don't even know what here at the law school.  I didn't win the lottery to actually get into the room with him, so I will watch him on streaming video in one of the two overfill rooms.  Pictures are probably out of the question but I may post on the talk later.  

Also, my good friend Jessica just started a blog about her new life in Appalachia teaching adult education classes.  Check it out at the left.

Reason and Passion

I am now well into my second week of law school and, though the workload is heavy, I am enjoying myself immensely.  I am headed to bed shortly after I finish the glass of wine I am currently sipping on.  Before I do, I would like to share with you one of my favorite passages from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet.  The conceit Gibran uses to convey his thoughts in this thin volume is the arrival of a prophet in the imaginary city of Orphalese.  The people of Orphalese gather around this prophet and ask him to speak on various topics.  For instance, a lawyer asks about laws and nursing mother asks about children.  

Here, a priestess asks the prophet to speak of reason and passion.  He answers:

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing; And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

...

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky,--then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."

And since you are a breath in God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

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Goodnight all.