A COSMOPOLITAN LAWYER: JUST SOME READINGS I HAVE ENJOYED LATELY

First, this blog replaces my previous blog, thecosmoplitanlawyerblogspot.com . Second, unlike that earlier blog, the present one is primarily meant as a record of my readings. It is not meant to suggest that others will be or should be interested in what I read. And third, in a sense, it is a public diary of one who is an alien in his own American culture. A person who feels at home just about anywhere, except in his birthplace . . . America.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

"SHINE A LIGHT ON THE DARKNESS OF MISUNDERSTANDING"

Naomi Benaron, Running the Rift: A Novel (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2012) ("In this complex world, it is up to us as teachers to shine a light on the darkness of misunderstanding." Id. at 107. " 'Did I get this right?' Jonathan asked. 'Did someone bury a mine on a path where children walk to school? And the children stepped on it?' Too numbed to speak, Jean Patrick nodded. 'How can one human being do this to another? To children, for God's sake: six- and seven-year old children,' Jonathan said. He cradled his head in his hands, 'The cold, calculated brutality--to camouflage the damned thing with leaves.' " Id. at 183. "If you stretch a spring long enough, far enough, the metal will fail and the spring will snap. The same with a human body. The same with a human heart. The same, even, with a country. . . . " Id. at 231. "You can outdistance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you." Id. at 313.).