Paint-Brushed Beauty

Autumn is in full swing here in Williamsburg. The trees are different colors every time I drive down Hwy 199. The range of colors runs from a few purples and a wide variety of greens to oranges, dark yellows, browns, and occasional smatterings of bright red and shining gold. The change in colors happens so calmly; it’s like watching a candle melt or a log burn. What Virginia lacks in the fireworks of an intense all-at-once fall, it makes up in quiet, plodding, almost paint-brushed beauty.

That said, autumn is a dangerous time to be under the trees in Virginia. Every time I go outside I hear twigs and acorns tumble through the branches to the ground. I’ve heard a few thunks on my car as I’ve pulled out of the driveway, but I think I’ve only been hit on the head once.

My week was very busy. I’m taking a mini class on European Union law. It’s interesting, but somewhat dense. The EU has to balance the interests and needs (and ideologies) of 28 different countries, which results in a complicated system of institutions and powers and competences. And which involves an absolute alphabet soup of acronyms. Acronyms are useful when there are only one or two, or when they are relatively familiar. They’re not quite as useful in large numbers, especially when they are composed of the same letters in different configurations. I’ve gotten lost a few times because the only acronym I could translate into a meaningful title was “EU”.

Happily, we have a good professor. He’s from Spain and is skilled at pointing out the principles that are very European (and not American).  This is especially helpful because the EU is based on civil law while the US (and every state except Louisiana) is based on common law.* It’s a little bit of a mental workout to think about law from the civil law perspective.

*Civil law is statute-based and civil law judges can only interpret the law. Common law is not statute based and judges can both interpret and create law. For a more detailed description than that, I recommend Wikipedia.

With all the reading and research of this past week, I’m very grateful for whoever scheduled this class. It was a stroke of genius to put it in the two weeks surrounding the end of Daylight Savings Time. I needed that extra hour of sleep last night.