Conference, Choir, and a Cockroach

“My friends, I’m here to tell you the lawyers won!”

That was the statement of Democratic Party chairman Ron Brown to a meeting of the American Bar Association (see A Nation Under Lawyers, Glendon, Harvard University Press, 1996, p. 3). It was also the first sentence I read in preparation for the Citizen Lawyer Seminar I attended this week.

During the seminar, we spent a couple of hours each day discussing the hows and whys of being a citizen lawyer. The idea of a citizen lawyer started with Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe; their purpose in setting up a law school at W&M was to train leaders for the new country. Given the pervasiveness of law in American society (much more so than in other cultures,  especially non-western ones), it is important to have lawyers who can use their skills and knowledge to make a positive difference in the world through leadership and public service.

Most of the seminar sessions were in the evening, which meant I was driving home in the dark. I had forgotten how dark in can get in Virginia at night under the trees on a street with no streetlights. While I was driving down South Henry Street on Monday night, my side mirror caught my eye because it was completely black. It’s a pleasant phenomenon, but a little surreal.

As interesting as the Citizen Lawyer Seminar was, it was no match for this week’s Stake Conference. Saturday night I had the pleasure of driving the four local sister missionaries to the Stake Center. Then I sat on a bench with a dozen or so sister missionaries and thoroughly enjoyed the meeting. It feels good to be surrounded by sister missionaries.

When it was over, we had a little side show: a cockroach was forcibly escorted out of the church by one of the Elders.

I spent the Sunday morning session on the stand so I could sing in the Stake choir. The choir had a short existence. We had one quick and effective morning practice, sang the prelude music, and sang our special musical number: Behold a Royal Army, arr. by David A. Zabriskie (it can be found at http://www.ldsmusicsource.com/music/1188/SeeHear.html).

I found it interesting to compare the citizen lawyer seminar with Stake Conference. My professor had hopes of giving us a life-changing (or at least profession-affirming) experience during the seminar. It was good and interesting, but I often felt somewhat like an observer. It was as though my classmates were moving forward, ready to tackle the complexity of the ever-expanding American legal system while I was on the sidelines – interested, but not really sure how or whether I was involved.

Stake Conference, on the other hand, had the depth and power that really makes a difference. There is no substitute for truth, revelation, and inspired leaders.

I don’t know how my career will turn out, but I hope I can ever be found doing the work of the Lord.

The leaves, they are a-changin'.