Wonders of the Ancient and Modern World

This is Zeus:

And this is Babylon:

I spent a few days with them while a member of my ward was in the hospital. On all four legs, they are as tall as my ribs. On two legs, they are as tall as me. They’re both very sweet and calm, unless the cat across the street is in the front yard taunting them:

I’m pretty sure they thought I was boring because I didn’t do anything except read while I was there. My six classes for the week translated into a few hundred pages of reading.

So far, my favorite thing about summer classes is that they are less intense. There are only six or eight people in each class. With fewer people and smaller rooms the atmosphere can’t help but be more relaxed. We are covering a lot of material quickly, but it doesn’t feel rushed. At least, not yet; maybe that will change in three weeks when we aren’t yet done with course material and finals are a week away.

We spent one Evidence class in the McGlothlin Courtroom, where our professor gave us a quick tour of the state-of-the-art features. The courtroom has numerous electronic gadgets for the judges, lawyers, court staff, and jury. It also has a podium that rotates 359 degrees. (It only goes that far because a few years ago an unknown law student demonstrated that three complete rotations would pull out all the cables underneath.)

The courtroom stays up to date by accepting products on loan from various companies, trying them out, and providing courtroom design consulting. The black chairs are among the more comfortable office chairs I’ve sat in (as I’m not a great fan of office chairs, that’s high praise). I also like the light on the ceiling (even if it does lead to a lot of unwanted glare on computer screens).

For one Professional Responsibility class, we had a guest “client” come in (he is actually a police officer in Newport News). He portrayed one of my professor’s former clients and reminded us all that not everyone has the same reasonable worldview that we do. From the client’s perspective, his actions were perfectly within his rights and the Commonwealth of Virginia had no right to interfere. From the Commonwealth’s perspective, the client’s actions were reprehensible (and ultimately illegal).

That class reinforced my aversion to criminal law, but it also reminded me of a thought I had while I was deciding to go to law school. One of my hesitations in going into law was that I might have to defend someone when I knew that they had done something wrong. But then I thought of Christ. One of His roles is being an Advocate. And every single person He advocates for has done something wrong. While I cannot even approach the Savior’s perfect justice and mercy, that thought eased my mind. If I can be an advocate in some small way and do some good in the world, I’ll be content.