Mark Levison, The Levison Group
There’s something awfully nice about autumn. I used to like riding my motorcycle at this time of the year. Last year, my wife Cheryl had a nasty premonition, and she convinced me to sell that particular ride. It hasn’t been replaced yet. There’s something about colored leaves—the smell of dying leaves showing off—which for some reason makes me feel more aware.
Each year begins brand new with hope. Most of the old clients are around, new clients appear, and different battles will be fought in the months to come. By the time we get to Fall, we look and wonder how the year went by so fast. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas — in rapid succession — are the last three stations at the end of the year. It’s a nice way to close things out.
During a time of ever-increasing safety concerns — with mass shootings of four or more people occurring in America in about nine out of every ten days — over 500 children visited our front door for treats this Halloween. That was encouraging. Some of the trick or treater’s proffered riddles were incomprehensible and plainly homespun. Some were funny: What do you call a fairy who never takes a shower? Stinkerbell. What is Dracula’s favorite dog or fruit? I’m sure you can figure those out.
We draw a crowd, because Halloween is my wife’s favorite holiday. She thinks it’s important to be there for the kids in our neighborhood. She puts a lot of effort into scary affectations. About one in every dozen visitors doesn’t have the fortitude to make it all the way up the front yard gauntlet, which is adorned by various glowing, and sometimes moving or talking, monsters. I have to meet those kids (some not that young) closer to the street. We draw so many trick or treaters to our house that friends come by to view the festivities.
Throughout the year, important things are going on at the courthouse, but as the year winds down, things seem a bit lighter. I guess there’s a little more eggnog in the chamber anterooms.
Cheryl works hard to make Thanksgiving special too. She usually makes sure any lawyers in my firm who don’t have family around have a place to gather. However, she’s kind of down on Christmas. The many years of excessive gift giving seem to have caused a backlash. She currently prefers a more peaceful and quiet time. Most of the kids have traveled off into their own lives anyway.
Not atypically, I have a trial in December. It’s only a one-day, judge-tried matter, but it will be crucially important to the clients. Experts will be arguing over document construction and the allocation of millions of dollars. The lawyers and experts are all experienced, so they will treat each other with respect and courtesy, while simultaneously trying to beat their opposition’s brains out. As always, each holiday season has its ups and downs. In baseball’s Fall Classic, Houston’s upstart team emerged from a flooded city to best baseball’s highest paid roster. It was a Herculean battle between the 100+ season game winners, but most people around the courthouse sympathized with the ’stros.
This Halloween began with a murderous ISIS sympathizer running over bicyclists. I guess that was meant to be some sort of strike at America. Six of the eight dead were visitors from Argentina and Belgium. Some things are just hard to wrap our minds around. We know that a certain number of people who feel (and likely have been) oppressed, seem to think they are justified in committing inconceivable acts. Still, it’s hard to understand how someone could believe he has done anything of value with his life by driving a rented truck over defenseless strangers. Since he’s still alive, maybe we will learn something about that.
As the year unravels there will likely be more surprises. The President is in Asia. We’ll see what insults he and Kim Jong Un launch towards each other. A number of laws may be passed before the end of the year. A new tax code has been proposed, which is touted as helping everybody. The lawyer in me is immediately skeptical of an income redistribution law that purportedly helps everyone. But, heck, as the year ends, let’s try to be optimistic; maybe everyone will benefit from simpler taxes. And besides, I hear President Trump is going to bestow upon us the biggest White House Christmas Tree of all times. I’m sure it is going to be huge!
So anyway, in a couple of weeks, it will be Thanksgiving. Our internal bickering is not likely to cease. But the bottom line is we still live in America, and almost all of us will be thankful for that.
[By the way: Bloodhound; Nectarine]
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Under Analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Mark Levison is a member of the law firm of Lashly & Baer. Contact Under Analysis by email at comments@levisongroup.com.
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