Osler's Razor

[click on the photo to enlarge it]

Not all moments are equal, and this was a long and remarkable week.

It is late winter here in Minnesota, which means that at once it is warm and there is snow on the ground. You can tell that Spring will come-- something that is often not so obvious up here.

It was a week kind of like that weather-- things in motion, with evidence of past and future mixed together.

On Monday, I got the chance to introduce Baylor Prof. Frank Beckwith as he addressed Lex Vitae and the Federalist Society. It was a pleasure to do so, too. Though Frank and I disagree about some things, we agree on at least as many others, and some of those commonalities are the most important of all. I loved introducing someone from my old life to the people in my life here... there was a balance and wholeness to that.

Tuesday was kind of a blur. At lunchtime, I gave a presentation with Susan Stabile for her lent retreat, on the characters in the Lenten story who were involved with the prosecution of Christ-- the government informant (Judas), the prosecutor (Caiaphus), the governor considering clemency (Pilate) and others. There is a podcast available here. As always, I learned more from what Susan Stabile said at the start of the session that I probably conveyed in my own talk.

After that, rushed off to teach criminal law, and after that took a moment to talk about a weird local case with KARE-TV. Then, at 4, I headed off to appear on a panel with Mike Paulsen, Rob Kahn, Robert Delahunty, and Teresa Collett, where we all talked about Violence and the Bible. What a group! I think it was a fascinating discussion all around (and I mostly listened).

On Wednesday, I got my first look at the school's magazine, the St. Thomas Lawyer. There was a nice story about our commutations clinic, and even a little op-ed I wrote exploring some themes that have long interested me. Finally, there was this great photo, with some of my talented colleagues:


On Thursday, other than teaching, I focused on sending two articles I finished up this week out to journals. A rough version of one, "The Promise of Trailing-Edge Guidelines to Resolve the Conflict Between Uniformity and Judicial Discretion," can be downloaded here. The second, "Learning From Crack," is not yet on SSRN, but will be soon.

Finally, yesterday, I taught in the morning and in the afternoon, and in between had the incredible opportunity of speaking to a large group of students who have been admitted to St. Thomas. I was asked to talk about the school's mission, something I really believe in, and it was wonderful to see how engaged the audience was with that idea.

It's not going to slow down much. Tomorrow morning I am speaking at St. Stephens here in Edina on "The Hospitality of God," (at 10, open to all). Then, in the next several weeks, we will be performing the Trial of Christ in Nashville and Oklahoma City, and at the end of the month I will be speaking at the memorial service for Katherine Baird Darmer at Lakeshore Baptist Church in Waco.

It is the last of these that is heaviest on my heart, and is the one that I know has to be... just right. In whatever still, small moments I have, that is what I think of.