LAW PUNDIT Thursday, October 14, 2004 10/14/2004 01:54:00 PM [Home]
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
The Law Pundit is probably one of very few people who reads the Stanford Lawyer cover to cover, including the voluminous section by class correspondents on the lives of alumni. The Law Pundit figures that the alumni of Stanford Law School are among the best that humanity has to offer, so it always gives one a sense of perspective and wisdom for one's own life to see what others have done or are doing with their lives and what conclusions about living, if any, they have drawn.
We have selected a few contributions which we find exemplary:
Getting and Keeping a Job
US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'connor (Stanford Law School, 1952) is quoted by class correspondent Beatrice Challiss Laws - now there's a fitting name - as follows in a recent O'connor speech at the annual convention of the Arizona bar:
"I had trouble getting a job and I never held on to any of them very long".
So do not despair in your search for your fortune. No one knows precisely where any path leads. Life is a learning process.
Enjoyment not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses
Class correspondent Jerome I. Braun writes about classmate Bob Powsner (Stanford Law School, 1953):
"Bob Powsner has an eclectic piece. It starts gently and segues into a tour d' force: "Not much change. I and mine are still well and happy. Freud's keys: work and love. Here's Solon (6th-century Athenian legislator and poet), from Werner Jaeger's Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Solon answers the complaints of the poet Mimnermus about the pangs of old age and his yearning to die when he passes 60 (well, after 2,500 years, we can probably add 25) without knowing illness and grief. [Says Solon to Mimnermus:]'If you obey me, then strike that out, and do not grudge it to me if I have thought of something better: rewrite your poem, Ionian nightingale, and sing this: I wish the Moira which is death (actually, fate) would overtake me at eighty.' His healthy Athenian energy and his rich enjoyment of life ar fit opponents for the supersensitive melancholy that shrinks from the 60th year [viz. 80th year ] of life because that year will deliver it over to the pains and troubles of existence. Solon cannot believe that old age is slow and painful extinction. His old age is a green tree, whose irrepressible energy produces new blossoms from year to year. And so he refuses even to die in silence and unlamented: he wants his friends to sigh and weep for him when he dies.... Like Arichilochus and all other Ionians, Solon laments the insecurity of life. 'The mind of the immortal gods is quite hidden from men.'
Yet all this is outweighed by his joy in the gifts of life - the growth of children, the strong pleasures of sport and hunting, the delights of wine and song, friendship, and the sensuous happiness of love. The power of enjoyment, in Solon's eyes, is wealth not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses." Wow! There's little I can add to that. Like I said, a tour de force."
On Loyalty and Disappointment with Other People (or with Universities)
Class correspondent Jack Borgwardt (Stanford Law School, 1954) entreaties us to be loyal:
"I am disappointed from time to time to hear of classmates ... who are disaffected with the law school or with Stanford, or with both. I don't suppose these institutions can possibly please all of us in all things, just as few if any of our family and acquaintances can. The university is made up not only of the physical plant, but also of people, the faculty, staff, and students. Each of them (us) will disappoint each of us in some way at some time. Don't give up on any of us. Most of us are doing the best we can, and remember that when any one of us turns his or her back on the rest of us, that is a terrible loss."
A Land of Freedom vs. the Lands of Dictatorship
Class correspondent Marvin Morgenstein writes that Dick Deluce (Stanford Law School, 1955) "happily reports that his son Dan was expelled from Iran for writing a not-too-complimentary article about the Iranian government in the Guardian."
Too often, we forget what free speech really means.
On the Value of Titles
You have to be careful with titles. My own position as Lecturer here in Germany corresponds to an Adjunct Professor in the States. Class correspondent Kenton Granger reports on Jack Rolls (Stanford Law School, 1962) who was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawaii Law School that "Jack reports that his then-young daughter inquired what a "junk professor" was.")
Life is Change and Dull Men do not Change
Class correspondent Paul B. Van Buren brings us this beauty from Lee Carlson (Stanford Law School, 1964):
"I am fortunate to be on Lee Carlson's e-mail joke list, so I hear from him almost every day. In response to my plea for news, Lee wrote: "How can you expect to have news from a dull man? Dull men don't like change. News happens only where there is change. Have you ever seen a newspaper headline 'Nothing Changed Today?'"
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 01:54:00 PM
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
The Law Pundit is probably one of very few people who reads the Stanford Lawyer cover to cover, including the voluminous section by class correspondents on the lives of alumni. The Law Pundit figures that the alumni of Stanford Law School are among the best that humanity has to offer, so it always gives one a sense of perspective and wisdom for one's own life to see what others have done or are doing with their lives and what conclusions about living, if any, they have drawn.
We have selected a few contributions which we find exemplary:
Getting and Keeping a Job
US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'connor (Stanford Law School, 1952) is quoted by class correspondent Beatrice Challiss Laws - now there's a fitting name - as follows in a recent O'connor speech at the annual convention of the Arizona bar:
"I had trouble getting a job and I never held on to any of them very long".
So do not despair in your search for your fortune. No one knows precisely where any path leads. Life is a learning process.
Enjoyment not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses
Class correspondent Jerome I. Braun writes about classmate Bob Powsner (Stanford Law School, 1953):
"Bob Powsner has an eclectic piece. It starts gently and segues into a tour d' force: "Not much change. I and mine are still well and happy. Freud's keys: work and love. Here's Solon (6th-century Athenian legislator and poet), from Werner Jaeger's Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Solon answers the complaints of the poet Mimnermus about the pangs of old age and his yearning to die when he passes 60 (well, after 2,500 years, we can probably add 25) without knowing illness and grief. [Says Solon to Mimnermus:]'If you obey me, then strike that out, and do not grudge it to me if I have thought of something better: rewrite your poem, Ionian nightingale, and sing this: I wish the Moira which is death (actually, fate) would overtake me at eighty.' His healthy Athenian energy and his rich enjoyment of life ar fit opponents for the supersensitive melancholy that shrinks from the 60th year [viz. 80th year ] of life because that year will deliver it over to the pains and troubles of existence. Solon cannot believe that old age is slow and painful extinction. His old age is a green tree, whose irrepressible energy produces new blossoms from year to year. And so he refuses even to die in silence and unlamented: he wants his friends to sigh and weep for him when he dies.... Like Arichilochus and all other Ionians, Solon laments the insecurity of life. 'The mind of the immortal gods is quite hidden from men.'
Yet all this is outweighed by his joy in the gifts of life - the growth of children, the strong pleasures of sport and hunting, the delights of wine and song, friendship, and the sensuous happiness of love. The power of enjoyment, in Solon's eyes, is wealth not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses." Wow! There's little I can add to that. Like I said, a tour de force."
On Loyalty and Disappointment with Other People (or with Universities)
Class correspondent Jack Borgwardt (Stanford Law School, 1954) entreaties us to be loyal:
"I am disappointed from time to time to hear of classmates ... who are disaffected with the law school or with Stanford, or with both. I don't suppose these institutions can possibly please all of us in all things, just as few if any of our family and acquaintances can. The university is made up not only of the physical plant, but also of people, the faculty, staff, and students. Each of them (us) will disappoint each of us in some way at some time. Don't give up on any of us. Most of us are doing the best we can, and remember that when any one of us turns his or her back on the rest of us, that is a terrible loss."
A Land of Freedom vs. the Lands of Dictatorship
Class correspondent Marvin Morgenstein writes that Dick Deluce (Stanford Law School, 1955) "happily reports that his son Dan was expelled from Iran for writing a not-too-complimentary article about the Iranian government in the Guardian."
Too often, we forget what free speech really means.
On the Value of Titles
You have to be careful with titles. My own position as Lecturer here in Germany corresponds to an Adjunct Professor in the States. Class correspondent Kenton Granger reports on Jack Rolls (Stanford Law School, 1962) who was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawaii Law School that "Jack reports that his then-young daughter inquired what a "junk professor" was.")
Life is Change and Dull Men do not Change
Class correspondent Paul B. Van Buren brings us this beauty from Lee Carlson (Stanford Law School, 1964):
"I am fortunate to be on Lee Carlson's e-mail joke list, so I hear from him almost every day. In response to my plea for news, Lee wrote: "How can you expect to have news from a dull man? Dull men don't like change. News happens only where there is change. Have you ever seen a newspaper headline 'Nothing Changed Today?'"
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 01:54:00 PM
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