Osler's Razor

 

Today I am on my way to Virginia, back to William and Mary. I'm going to get to see some old friends (maybe even CraigA), and familiar haunts.

Yesterday was a pretty great day in Minnesota, though. I teach class in the morning and afternoon on Tuesdays, but I had a few minutes to watch one of my favorite things-- the swearing-in of new citizens in the atrium of the law school. There is a part of the ceremony where they name the countries the new citizens are from, and they stand up as their country is called. There was a stillness, a solemnity to it that that was deeply moving. It reminded me that each of them wasn't just coming here, but leaving something behind, something that to them was in some way ancient and precious. They can go back... but they will never again be of that place.