One Lawyer's Question This Christmas: Why Is It Them, Instead of Me?

by Mark Miller

"Well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you."

--from the song Do They Know It's Christmas, written by Bob Geldof, sung by Bono.

I don't know what Bob Geldof was thinking exactly when he wrote that rather arrogant (to my American eyes) lyric, but as of late the line has weighed on me. The line cuts me to the bone. If you are reading this weblog, you are blessed beyond any measure many people in this world could ever imagine. You may be a 'social work' lawyer, making pennies on the hour in relation to the time you put in to your job. Or you may be a legal 'master of the universe' (to steal and misapply a phrase from Tom Wolfe), making scads of money doing mergers, or commercial real estate, or class-action work, or defending same. Most likely, you're somewhere in between the two.

Regardless of where you fall on this professional continuum, more than likely I know what you do during much of your workday. You stare at a computer. You type. You dictate. You make phone calls. You avoid phone calls. You meet clients. You find clients. You fire clients. You research. You read. You write. You e-mail. You argue. You marshal evidence. You record. You go to court. You win. You lose. You settle. You think.

Lawyers get complained about, and do a great deal of complaining themselves. We whine about how hard we work. We moan about how little respect we often get from the public. I've gotten to know lawyers in all shapes and sizes, yet both the former and latter are consistent complaints up and down that professional continuum above-mentioned.

Meanwhile, there are Iraqis driving down the road waiting for a makeshift roadside bomb to blow up their auto. Meanwhile, there are thousands of motherless children wandering the desert of Sudan, fleeing a brutal government which seeks to exterminate them. Meanwhile, there are dissidents jailed in Cuba indefinitely for speaking against the government. And meanwhile, in Ethiopia, the land which spawned the song quoted above, more than 3/4 of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. Today.

I wonder who listens to their complaining.

I sit here in front of my computer, and look out the window at a marvel of Mother Nature, an intracoastal waterway populated by birds of more species than I know, fish which jump out of the water with alarming frequency, dolphins, and vessels which are astounding for many reasons, not the least of which is their beauty and elegance.

This Christmas night I'll ask God ... no, I will demand of God: why is it them, instead of me?

And after hearing His answer and failing to understand, I'll give Him thanks, just as Bono and Bob told me to do, when I was a child.

About the author: Mark Miller is an attorney practicing in Florida.

Comments

[larry ziegler]

REALLY MOVING!!!

[JR]

Mark: There is a lot of good stuff here.

[Thurmond]

It could be you. You could join the army. I'm not kidding or trying to be sarcastic. The JAG Corps regularly waives the 34 y.o. age limit.

[Mark]

Thank you for all the comments. Thurmond, thank you for the advice -- unfortunately, the JAG Corps didn't want me! I tried that a while back.

[Jim]

So many of us are blessed beyond comparison. Thanks Mark for the reminder.

[Debra]

YES!

Just, "Yes."