Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once More!
None of us can say that we are gliding straight off a victory. If you are reading this for any reson other than pure curiosity, all your battlements have fallen, your archers have run out of arrows, your trebuchets have no more stones, and your troops lie bleeding on the battlefield. Everything you have planned has come to wrack and ruin, and, worse, you're probably taking your spouse and dependents with you.
You feel like someone has scrubbed your naked body with a Brillo pad, poured rubbing alcohol over you, rolled you in honey, then staked you to an anthill in the desert. You know there's no hope. You know that you, as a lawyer, whether unemployed or not, are the epitome of a reasonable man (or woman), and that there's nothing reasonable left to do in the face of insuperable odds but to give up.
But, but, but , but, but. . . . Suppose you hang in for one more day. And one more day after that. Suppose that's all it takes. Suppose on the day after that, somebody gets an enormous case with your name written all over it. Suppose you get a job. Suppose you pay your debts. Suppose you stop trying to kill your spouse. Suppose you remember what it's like to be happy again. Suppose it all starts to feel normal. Suppose you can help somebody else climb back up there.
And so, while this entry may not be topical, while it may not be controversial, while it may not provide much food for thought, at the end of a very long hard day, simply "Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!1" That may be all it takes.
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Title. Henry V, Two Cities Productions, 1944, starring Laurence Olivier; BBC Productions, 1989, starring Kenneth Branagh.
1 Id.
You feel like someone has scrubbed your naked body with a Brillo pad, poured rubbing alcohol over you, rolled you in honey, then staked you to an anthill in the desert. You know there's no hope. You know that you, as a lawyer, whether unemployed or not, are the epitome of a reasonable man (or woman), and that there's nothing reasonable left to do in the face of insuperable odds but to give up.
But, but, but , but, but. . . . Suppose you hang in for one more day. And one more day after that. Suppose that's all it takes. Suppose on the day after that, somebody gets an enormous case with your name written all over it. Suppose you get a job. Suppose you pay your debts. Suppose you stop trying to kill your spouse. Suppose you remember what it's like to be happy again. Suppose it all starts to feel normal. Suppose you can help somebody else climb back up there.
And so, while this entry may not be topical, while it may not be controversial, while it may not provide much food for thought, at the end of a very long hard day, simply "Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!1" That may be all it takes.
________________________________________________________
Title. Henry V, Two Cities Productions, 1944, starring Laurence Olivier; BBC Productions, 1989, starring Kenneth Branagh.
1 Id.
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