Osler's Razor

[click on the photo to enlarge it]

2009 was a pretty good year for me. I had several dreams come true, in fact-- winning a case in the Supreme Court, testifying in Congress, publishing a book: These were all things I had always wanted to do, and this was the year for it. There was a quieter dream come true, too. When I was deciding what law school to go to, I was actually living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Harvard. The day before I had to put down a deposit, I walked through the Harvard Law campus and came across a bulletin board covered with notices for upcoming lectures on all kinds of fascinating topics-- democracy in Africa, Constitutional development in Eastern Europe, street gangs and law enforcement, women in litigation-- and was overwhelmed with the enormity of the law. But then it struck me that each of these speakers was an expert in one thing, not all of it, that they had a passion for something that became woven into their life story. I wanted to be like that. I decided to go to Yale Law, and someday come back to Harvard and give one of those lectures.

This year, I did. And it rocked.

Of course, I messed up some things, too. I gave some lectures where I lost track of my own point, and wrote a few test questions that didn't make as much sense as I hoped. There were moments when I was not as kind or patient as I should have been. Plus, of course, I TP'd the wrong house.

That's all in the past now. 2010 is going to hold its own challenges, and I look forward to them. I do make resolutions, or at least one, every year. I try to base them on a value I have not lived out enough.

So, here is my resolution for 2010: I am going to be more patient. More patient with those around me, more patient with myself, and more patient with the wheels of change. Good will come, but sometimes the right moment has to come first. My colleague Rory Ryan was a running back in college, and one thing running backs know is that just running fast is a recipe for disaster, because you will run right into the backs of your linemen. First, you have to wait a bit for the blockers to open a hole, and then you move. It is a skill I need to learn, both in what I do and how I deal with people.

Here it is in haiku form:

It is a virtue
To wait and then run sometimes
Truth is always there.

Do you have a resolution for this year?

[note: I added the haiku after Christine reminded me it was haiku Friday!]