Today is such a gorgeous day. Read this poem before you go out an enjoy it; then read it again when you come back inside.
The little cares that fretted me.
I lost them yesterday
Among the fields above the sea.
Among the winds at play;
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.
The foolish fears of what may happen,
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay;
Among the husking of the corn
Where drowsy poppies nod,
Where ill thoughts die and good are born,
Out in the fields with God.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(taken from page 370 of Life Prayers from Around the World, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon)
Today's prompt from 642 Things:
Write a letter to the teacher (or coach) who made a difference in your life, asking him or her for help. What are you asking for? Why?
One of the people for whom I give thanks is my first legal mentor, Broadus Spivey. He didn’t teach a single law school class nor did he coach people in the current paying sense of the word. He paid us as his law clerks – less until Diane Dwight went into his office, wangling a fifty cent per hour raise – then mentored us free of charge. Broadus recently turned 80. Diane, with others’ help, arranged a surprise party in Austin attended by more than one hundred of us. Although all of us recalled how much practical law we learned from him, most of us love Broadus for what he taught us about life.
ReplyDeleteBroadus grew up in small towns in the Texas Panhandle, attending schools in Goodnight and Clarendon among other places. Honored by law associations as a Legal Legend and a War Horse (boy, do you have to be old for those appellations!), he remains who he was: a man who loves, respects, and enjoys other people. At 80, Broadus still represents those injured or killed in vehicles, those fired for reasons unexplainable other than by race or religion or sex, those injured or killed by law enforcement, those wrongfully convicted of a crime. He still enjoys the fight. He still believes in his 3 ‘h’s, humanity, humility, and humor; one of his requirements, enshrined in the firm’s employment manual, is that everyone must make at least one mistake a day.
He met law clerks regularly for breakfast at Cisco’s, early by our standards – 7:00 or 7:30 am – late by his. He has long enforced ‘the Pat Kelly Rule’, named for its most flagrant violator, which requires that his law clerks attend all their classes at UT Law, not skip them to work for him. For many of us, clerking with Broadus helped us figure out the law, raised our grades, and made our last years in law school not just palatable but fun. We made lifelong friends there. His word was and is his bond and he expected that our word would be our bond: at the firm, in law school, and throughout life.
I would ask Broadus for help with maintaining the passion for fighting for the underdog that has characterized his life. He grew up poor. He grew up with discomfort. He grew up first in his family to graduate from college (and law school). He now lives comfortably, could easily retire, yet remains passionate about helping others through his legal work. My father and his older brother, my Uncle Lee, were also the first in their family to graduate from college. Dad continued to medical school and became a cardiologist. I grew up well off, in comfort. And that ease with comfort can sometimes muffle the call to roll up the sleeves, get down in the dirt, and wrestle with what life has dealt others. Although my call is different than Broadus’s call, both require passion for the least and the lost and, mentoring still, Broadus continues sounding the charge.