It is so peaceful here. Oops, sorry, my cellphone is ringing. Be right back.
I regret to say this little vignette, if I may, describes how many of us will spend our summer break — never too far from the cellphone, texts, e-mails or a client old or new.
Another fire to put out, not a campfire — a practice fire.
It’s not healthy.
This profession demands so much of us; the pace is so out of control.
What we planned to do tomorrow gets scrambled when in the morning we check our e-mails and phone messages and try to respond as quickly as possible. When in court, coffee breaks are cellphone breaks, lunch is a 10-minute flurry. After court, client meetings, return calls, letters, facta, research, strategy, and then the pit stop that used to be home. Our breaks seem more like grabbing that water bottle along the marathon route.
We all need to slow it down, take some control of our lives and breathe… That’s what summer vacation should be about.
Often, however, we look with dismissive envy at those among us who canoed down a northern river or trekked in the Alps, visited the great cities of Europe or disappeared to a dock. The guilt lasts as long as the next e-mail. We promise ourselves and loved ones “maybe next year” and then the pattern repeats and we are exhausted, burnt out, and perhaps depressed.
We need to seize our summers and embrace and enjoy life — September will arrive soon enough.
If we actually stop and look away from our phones, we may just get some perspective on how big our world is and realize a lot happens in it that we may miss or don’t think about.
Did we notice there is this crazy little spacecraft that flew over Pluto, the little planet we memorized long ago, which sent amazing pictures back to us? How did that happen? How does that thing keep running anyway?
Did we appreciate that representatives of the United States of America and its hated arch-enemy, Iran, actually sat at a table, collaborated and just maybe prevented a nuclear war? How did that happen?
Did the significance of the president of the United States visiting federal prisons in an effort to highlight the excessive incarceration in his country register with us?
Did the lowering of the Confederate flag in the deep south of that country resonate at all?
Indeed, did we notice the raising of the Cuban flag at its embassy in Washington?
Did we stop for any time and contemplate the enormous neglect in this country for our aboriginal citizens?
Did any of us read the Truth and Reconciliation summary, or is it old news now?
Have we realized there is a spiritual leader in Rome who, throughout the world, is washing the feet of the poor and the rejected? Have we listened to him? Really listened?
Did we pay any real attention to the conflict and near collapse of the idyllic Greece?
In Toronto, we began July with a chorus of complaints about restricted driving lanes for the Pan Am Games. What we may have missed was the utter joy on the faces of the athletes as they paraded together in the opening ceremonies and the exhilaration and infectious energy of their competition as the Games progressed and restricted lanes were forgotten.
This summer offers a respite before an important election in October. It could be an opportunity to discuss, debate, and contemplate the future of our country.
Our lives are programmed for immediate gratification. If we don’t know the answer, we call up a woman named Siri on our iPhones and are instantly informed.
Problem solving is what we do year round, upon demand. In the summer, we should break up with Siri and read novels and poetry. Take yourself, blanket in hand, to an outdoor play or concert or capture the sunset with paint or camera.
Look at the stars, listen to the wind, the waves, the rain. Invite your children to do the same — to stop and laugh because school is still out.
Many of our colleagues in this profession suffer from fatigue, burnout or disappointment and depression. There should be mandatory retreats to re-energize, to sleep, to listen to our breathing, to look after ourselves.
We need to periodically refocus. At a recent call to the bar ceremony in Toronto, the esteemed Julian Porter, QC was given an honorary degree. He addressed the assembled, eager graduates, restless at the gate of their profession. He didn’t tell them about the Charter, he gave them a list of books to read — it was shockingly spiritual in a way, the absolute perfect introduction to the laborious and dizzy days ahead, but just in time for their first summer break.
Peacefulness is within our reach in the summer, even for a short visit. Let the cellphone ring — no doubt it will still be there in September.
