Zen Garden

I awoke an hour later than normal today, probably because I went to bed a couple of hours later than normal. I will correct that tonight so that I'm up at the more reasonable, and absolutely peaceful, hour of 5:00 am. I'm looking forward to an earlier sunrise so I can go outside and drink my coffee in the breaking light.

Early morning is the time I'm most reflective and contemplative. It's when I'm at my most serene. I feel like I need to be serene more often. Time to build my Zen garden.

Too Quick to Judge

I do not have enough experience with our justice system, in any capacity, to write about it with even a modicum of expertise. I can only express my opinions. Of course, I can express what I hope is true our justice system.

And what I hope is true of our justice system is that the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" really does form an important foundation of the system. Despite the fact that I think some, perhaps many, defense attorneys are not the noble people they might like us to believe they are, I believe they are, as a group, doing important work. They must do everything they can to call into question the state's arguments intended to prove guilt. Their job is open the door to doubts that their clients are guilty. And they must try to introduce doubts that the processes followed in making the case against their clients were conducted in accord with the rules.

We can't afford to make it easy for the government to prosecute anyone. If we ever relax and say it's OK to overlook the rules because someone is "obviously" guilty, we will be putting our freedom in jeopardy.

I don't like criminals any more than the next guy, but I happen to believe deeply in justice. Justice doesn't occur when we look the other way and let the state steamroll the bad guys. The bad guys deserve to be jailed, imprisoned, etc., but only after they are proven guilty, beyond any reasonable doubt and in accordance with the rules of evidence, etc.

I hate to see "obviously" guilty people walk due to a technicality. But I'd hate it even more to see innocent people lose their freedom due to our laziness or our too-quick-to-judge attitudes.

We Have Met the Enemy

Just when I think I have conquered it, it raises its ugly head and there I am again. Of course its head and mine are one.

New Office Space

I spent my morning looking at options for office space. You see my current office space is OK, except for the fact that the AC and heat rarely work. My staff and I are, on a routine basis, freezing or melting. I have told the building management I cannot tolerate that and that it must be fixed. They smile, assure me it's being addressed, and do nothing.

Life's too short. So I'm looking. I've found a few decent options. Soon, I'll have to decide which space to select. And then I will have to tell me client their addresses are changing. Not that it's a big deal, but some boards get antsy at such news; they think there's more to it than there is.

Anyway, it's a hassle and it's an expense and it's an annoyance. But I'm afraid it's necessary. I'm unwilling to put our folks through it again.

So, new office space! Woo!

Hypocrisy

I've been watching news coverage of the horrific events taking place in Japan. A monstrous earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9. Giant tsunamis sweeping in from the sea, crushing buildings and boats and roads and washing people and their dreams into oblivion. And now, serious concerns about the possible meltdown of at least one nuclear plant, following a severe explosion inside the plant.

We watch, helplessly, from this side of the globe, wondering what we can do, wishing we could do something. Perhaps we can do a bit. We can offer aid, we can send money and supplies and assistance in recovery and reclamation. But we can't undo, in years, what the forces of nature have done in an instant.

As I witness these horrible events captured on video, it occurs to me how remarkably fragile our lives are. We may be sturdy and we may have wills of steel that will ensure we will fight back and rebuild, but, ultimately, we are fragile beings who don't recognize our own fragility.

I won't say the infrastructure that has been destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami was not important. It was, no doubt, especially to the people who depended on it. But if we could retrieve the distant memories of our species, we would recall that we do not need all the things we have grown accustomed to having and have decided we "need" today. Our ancestors lived without electricity, without communications, without roads. Sure, it was a different and far more difficult life, but they lived it.

If only we could be content to have the real necessities like clean water, adequate shelter, and enough food. If all of us were content with those basics, and did not strive always for more, more, more, we would be better prepared...psychologically, at least, to cope with the inevitable eruptions of nature's fury.

Easy to say, of course, as I sit in my air-conditioned home, typing on my computer, drinking my coffee from freshly-ground beans. Are we all this hypocritical? Yes, I think so.

Cielito Lindo

This is perhaps the best commercial I have ever seen. Cielito Lindo is a Mexican Ranchera tune, written by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés, who died in 1957. The song was written about 1882.

Bottle It

If I could bottle what I know and administer that knowledge to temporaries I hire for short periods of time, I could get enormous amounts of work done. I could take enormous amounts of time off. I could take time to exercise.