Friday, March 10, 2006

Deliberate

The house is quiet except for the muted clicking of the keyboard, the gurgling of the aquarium filter, and the sound of a cat ripping apart a cardboard box. And dark except for the blue glow of the monitor and the harsh glare of the desk lamp.

An exceptional night.

The kids just went to bed. It was one of those unsatisfying, cheater sortsa bedtimes where I just bury my nose in the monitor (quite a trick unto itself, let me assure you) and ignore the whole thing. I let Chris do it all. I didn't even say good-night to Larissa, now that I think of it. I said good-night to Lana because she came out and fetched it. Larissa was in bed calling me insistently. I was doing nothing. Not making up my mind if I was ignoring her or going to go in there "in a minute." Chris decided for me by going in himself. Now they are peacefully settled in and if I go in, it'll raise a ruckus. So. I missed my chance. And I took my chance too, I guess. Since if I'd gone in, I'd be sleeping now.

I've been kinda experiencing hecticness this week. I've got jury duty. I'm on a jury. It's a butt-kicker of a case. I don't like it at all. But my initial reluctance to selected for the jury was gradually replaced by a strong feeling of duty. This is an important case (to me -- and no doubt to the defendant and witnesses and other parties) and I felt with increasing certainty that it was important that someone with my perspective be on it.

And that's true when you get your jury summons too. I'm sorry that sometimes you might end up with a week wasted on some car insurance company trying to get out of paying some poor lady for her hurt neck (that's happened to me). But those kinds of stupid things are the price we pay for the privilege of a democracy with a legal system that is intended to protect those who are less able to protect themselves -- unless folks try to shirk their responsibilities and think their mundane lives are more important than these issues.

Oh, I'll tell ya all about it later. Just, do your duty, okay? And if you're not going to, you may shut the hell up about the crooks and bums loose in society today.

2 comments:

ohdawno said...

I agree with you about jury duty. I've been called many times but have only served once. That was a very interesting experience.

I haven't gotten a summons up here in some years - I'm registered to vote...wonder why.

Oh, and "hi!" I'm glad you posted today, I was missing you.

uniquematerial said...

Pink -
I trust ya. I know you'll do the right thing.

I've only served on one jury. I wish they'd call me more often.
Heck, I could make a career out of it - I'm retired, so.....

Anyway. I've probably just proved (again) what you've known all along. (I'm a little bit strange)

And IT's ABout Time YOU UPDated This BLOG, dammitol. LOL :)