Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Today I spent some time in the principal criminal court house where I practice. It was almost completely deserted except for cleaning crews, who were everywhere. I had a chance to walk around on different floors. Outside all of the courtrooms there is a wooden hold attached to the walls. On it the judges display the daily "calendars" as they are called, the list of cases that will be heard that day. Almost none of the courtrooms had these calendars displayed. I noticed one from a distance and walked up to it. March 11 was the last day this courtroom anyway was in session. It was also the last day of the last trial that I had, in a different courtroom, in that building. Maybe it was the last day any of the courtooms was open. The calendar, and the date, struck me as one of those poignant artifacts of a time passed, like a watch broken and stopped at the exact moment of a person's murder; like Salvador Allende's glasses, artifacts from the Titanic, pictures of abandoned Chernobyl.