lawyers: who we are and the good we do
Today’s events in London are a sorrowful reminder of the conflict plaguing our world today and the innocent people who suffer because of it. I’m also reminded of how important it is for lawyers to acknowledge the significant role we play in managing everyday conflict. I recently gave two programs at the Rhode Island Bar Association’s Annual Meeting. While there, I met RIBA’s current President, Philip M. Weinstein, and heard his stirring talk about the role of lawyers in our society. His message is captured in this timely article in which Weinstein dedicates his year in office to raising “a consciousness amongst us as to what is important in life – not only as lawyers but also as people.” Declaring lawyers “the peacemakers of society,” he asks his membership (and, really, us all) to “take a look at how we conduct ourselves – be it at depositions, trial, negotiations, or anywhere else. Do we treat others as we would like to be treated?” Weinstein ends his commentary with the following poem by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. I think it well punctuates his rousing call for us to reconnect to who we are and what we value most.
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
