"Playing Hurt"

A few days ago, a doctor told me I had bronchitis.   I shall now try to “write sick.”  Don’t expect much, and here’s why.

Writing is much more than the ability to string words together in an acceptable manner.  Sure, it involves that.  But it takes a vital “Support System” as well:

Energy.

Focus.

Endurance.

A fourth thing I can’t think of because I’m sick.

You see how that works?

Oh yeah.

Concentration.

I had the forming glimmers of an “idea” for a post.  I had read an article, explaining how two prominent attorneys had ruined their reputations, representing accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein.  Not because they represented him, but because of revealed proposed “strategies” to smear and intimidate his accusers. 

Simultaneously arriving was a New Yorker profile of attorney Alan Dershowitz, proud defender of O.J. Simpson, and confidante to the current smarm-plagued president, among other enviable clientele.

What immediately came to mind was the standard line defense lawyers trot out when they represent truly horrible people, which is,

“Everyone’s entitled to a zealous representation.”

Which leaves me immediately wondering,

“What are the limiting boundaries of ‘zealous’?”

“We killed the witnesses.”

That’s probably “Too far.”

But shaming them into silence, and threatening their families and livelihoods?

“Sure, we do that.”

There is also an accompanying second question in this context.  Call it “The Lawyer’s Mother’s Question” to their Sonny Boy’s (or Sonny Girl’s) defending a moral malignancy because “Everyone’s entitled to a zealous representation”, the troubled Mamma inquiring,

“Does it have to be you?”

Normally, that would just be my “jumping-off” point to a broader exploration of “acceptable behavior.”

But today, I shall stop here.

When you are not entirely “tip-top”, the best idea is,

You pitch a couple of innings, and you head for the bench.