I had an idea last night after I had shut everything down. I remembered it this morning and jotted it down.
I love flash mobs, I don't love the name, don't even like the name, but love the idea. The wonder of a surprise musical performance, the musicians and singers coming in plain clothes from all directions out of the blue.
Wonder is the highest, uniquely human emotion Rene Descartes believed until he didn't believe it. I think he was right the first time. Another example of wonder would be the reaction to Susan Boyle's initial recital.
My idea was informed also by being in court yesterday. I don't know wh...Ah! I do know why. I walked out of court with my client. I got his case resolved for him in an excellent way and we were both elated. As we walked out of the courthouse with our arms around each other onto the elevated landing that connected to the sidewalk below by steps he paused and handing his phone asked a man on the top step ahead of us if he could take a picture of my client and I together. The man smiled and took the picture. It was such a touching tribute that my client paid me with that photo.
So my idea was a spontaneous tribute, a flash mob tribute if you insist. The idea was informed also by the number of lawyers who have passed in the last few years, who I knew, who were friends, who were not renowned lawyers but had done their jobs well and truly for decades and passed unsung. That made me think of all the people who live lives well and truly and pass away unsung by tributes during life. Like my secretaries. Birthday tributes in my thinking didn't count. The germs of my idea therefore were 1) unsung 2) random 3) work 4) tribute 5) public.
I imagined it playing out like this: On a completely random day a secretary mechanically enters the lobby of her building to take the elevator to her floor and it's all set up just as in a flash mob. Security is in on it and in their regular uniforms are standing by the elevators with yellow out-of-order placards on the floor. Other people, in on it too, are standing around grousing. Suddenly, some men come around a corner wheeling a throne. All the grousers break into "Wind Beneath My Wings" directed at the previously unsung secretary whose eyes are wide and mouth agape with wonder. Two women approach beaming, one carrying a crown, and the other guiding the secretary to the throne while the crown is placed on her head. "Just cuz," one of them explains. "Just cuz you're you." "Did you ever know that you're my hero?" the crowd sings. By now of course the secretary is balling her eyes out. After fifteen minutes we all go back to work.
"For one brief shining moment...there was a fleeting wisp of glory"
I love flash mobs, I don't love the name, don't even like the name, but love the idea. The wonder of a surprise musical performance, the musicians and singers coming in plain clothes from all directions out of the blue.
Wonder is the highest, uniquely human emotion Rene Descartes believed until he didn't believe it. I think he was right the first time. Another example of wonder would be the reaction to Susan Boyle's initial recital.
My idea was informed also by being in court yesterday. I don't know wh...Ah! I do know why. I walked out of court with my client. I got his case resolved for him in an excellent way and we were both elated. As we walked out of the courthouse with our arms around each other onto the elevated landing that connected to the sidewalk below by steps he paused and handing his phone asked a man on the top step ahead of us if he could take a picture of my client and I together. The man smiled and took the picture. It was such a touching tribute that my client paid me with that photo.
So my idea was a spontaneous tribute, a flash mob tribute if you insist. The idea was informed also by the number of lawyers who have passed in the last few years, who I knew, who were friends, who were not renowned lawyers but had done their jobs well and truly for decades and passed unsung. That made me think of all the people who live lives well and truly and pass away unsung by tributes during life. Like my secretaries. Birthday tributes in my thinking didn't count. The germs of my idea therefore were 1) unsung 2) random 3) work 4) tribute 5) public.
I imagined it playing out like this: On a completely random day a secretary mechanically enters the lobby of her building to take the elevator to her floor and it's all set up just as in a flash mob. Security is in on it and in their regular uniforms are standing by the elevators with yellow out-of-order placards on the floor. Other people, in on it too, are standing around grousing. Suddenly, some men come around a corner wheeling a throne. All the grousers break into "Wind Beneath My Wings" directed at the previously unsung secretary whose eyes are wide and mouth agape with wonder. Two women approach beaming, one carrying a crown, and the other guiding the secretary to the throne while the crown is placed on her head. "Just cuz," one of them explains. "Just cuz you're you." "Did you ever know that you're my hero?" the crowd sings. By now of course the secretary is balling her eyes out. After fifteen minutes we all go back to work.
"For one brief shining moment...there was a fleeting wisp of glory"
