Introduction to the Blog

The Blog

It seems appropriate that I should start this blog on an inauspicious day: unseasonably cold weather in Connecticut coupled with a headcold that has me seriously considering using the scissors on my desk to drain some of the demons out. I mean, how much mucus can the human body produce in an afternoon anyway? Pints? Quarts?

I had dithered on starting a blog, then dithered further on writing anonymously or using my name.

In the end, I decided that sometime in the future, I’d like a record of the next few years – so “yes” to blogging. I also wanted to contribute some more data and my own dash of subjective impressions to the great LS blog stew. I found a lot of good information and suggestions on blogs when I was researching returning to law school, and wanted to, in part, do my share for other readers and lurkers, especially non-traditional applicants like myself.

I also decided that I’d probably have future classmates who might be made acutely uncomfortable by a completely “open” blog, which will no doubt mention them, their school, etc. – so “no” to open blogging.

So the question becomes the level of anonymity I’ll be using. I won’t use my name, but probably will mention my future school by name. I also won’t use the real names of any non-public figures without their express permission. When possible I will fudge the details to keep the truth of the matter intact. Due to my idiosyncratic interests, it probably wouldn’t be that difficult to discover my identity, but if you do, please don’t post that information here.

Me, Myself, and I
Who am I? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? I’m quite taken with Emerson’s words (in “The American Scholar”) on the subject:

Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. In the divided or social state, these functions are parceled out to individuals, each of whom aims to do his stint of the joint work, whilst each other performs his. . .The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters,--a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.

Man is thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things. The planter, who is Man sent out into the field to gather food, is seldom cheered by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond, and sinks into the farmer, instead of Man on the farm. The tradesman scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and the soul is subject to dollars. The priest becomes a form; the attorney, a statute-book; the mechanic, a machine; the sailor, a rope of a ship.

However, it’s difficult to escape identifying oneself through one’s profession – in fact, it can tell you quite a bit about the person, insofar as you understand how the profession shapes individuals. In my case, I would identify myself as a poet. I’ve been writing poetry for as long as I can remember; I studied it intensively as an undergrad, then went to graduate school to pick up an MFA in writing during the late 90s.

What other categories? I’m a white male, early 30s, born and raised in central Connecticut. Ethnically, my ancestry is a mix: Irish, Scottish, Polish, Ukrainian. I was raised Catholic (with a few memorable trips to the exotic Ukranian Orthadox Church) but am now more or less agnostic and extremely liberal. I’ve lived in the North and the South and on both coasts. I build and ride bicycles. I’ve held (as befits a poet) a rather dizzying array of jobs.

Law School

In 2004, I’ll be going to law school in the pursuit of a J.D., which surprised a good number of my poetry peeps and friends. The fact that so many people found it surprising (and assumed I’d be “giving up poetry”) disturbed me.

I wish now that I had started this blog earlier, when I was entertaining the idea of going back, weighing the pros and cons, and generally trying to feel my way through the “real” situation, as opposed to the fudgeable numbers and stock phrases put out in the glossy law school brochures.

At this point (How does one date a blog? Years, months and days? Scoplaw 0.0.1?) I’m getting responses back from the schools I applied to. I’ll write about that, along with my impressions of the application process, in another post.

Comments

[ambimb]

Welcome to the adventure of law school and to blogging! Just off the top of my head: I got much the same reaction from my friends when I told them I was going to law school -- they didn't (don't) understand what an English major would want w/law school. I don't understand it myself much of the time, and after almost a year I can say: The transition has been harder than I ever thought it would be. I hope yours is better. Good luck choosing a school and everything. I look forward to following your progress here.