I’ve given this some thought and have even dug around a little bit, and I’ve decided it’s pretty much whatever I want to recall, ruminate on, or observe. Opinions, too. A small-time megaphone. Sometimes, even some venting or bitching. And usually in no particular order or sequence.
And that surely suits my popping-off string of Chinese firecrackers, always sporadically disorganized mind…
So, let’s take another run at it.
Cutting Out the Negative People
I decided to eliminate, as best I can, negative people from my life—toxic, cranky, rude, eternally dissatisfied. Shrinks my number of acquaintances and my displeasure and dismay at having to deal with them and be with them. So, attendance at my funeral will be small and thus, there will be more “refreshments” for all. A good trade-off, I think.
Try it — I think you’ll like it.
Knowing When It Was Time to Get Out
Folks, knowing how much I loved practicing law, have asked me when and how I knew it was time to get out.
For a long time, my response was a mushy, “I don’t really know. It just happened.”
Not true. There were hints.
I keep a number of journals where, from time to time, I make entries, hopefully funny or thoughtful. I was flipping through a few of them a few days ago. As long ago as 2006, here and there are speculations about how I was getting weary, tired of the fight, even bored with it all.
They were at best fleeting and whatever. However, I waded back in and fought like Hell, bent hard into it. I could not be weak or ineffective for my people. It was only when Covid closed the courthouses, created the awful distance of Zoom, eliminated trials, put the world of the trial lawyer on ice, and stole all momentum that I said, “That’s it,” and began the process of leaving the building.
It has all turned out just fine. I am busy with my reading and writing, with family business, a few fun construction projects, spending time with family and friends, and enjoying my Tar Heels. I even sleep a little longer most days. I have become grateful for so much. Things have slowed, calmed. I have found that elusive thing they call contentment.
My “trial lawyer/litigator brain” is always there. But, been there, done that.
I loved it so much and I will never go back.
On Text Threads and Manufactured Agitation
Recently, I have been swept up in a couple of riptides, initiated and maintained by often overly emotional people who are dealing with an impending, inevitable loss. These outpourings of angst and dismay are now powered by the dreaded Text Thread, many people feeding off the unhappiness of others. They multiply like rabbits and become more inane with each new layer of manufactured agitation.
They are a pain in the ass.
I was discussing this phenomenon with a close friend, an empathetic and thoughtful person. Our consensus slowly evolved into an effective, surgical solution for these overly absorbed people: “Tear that Band-Aid off” quickly and now. We admit this is not a cure-all, but if used, it is effective 90% of the time. Spares a lot of wasted, overly shared emoting. It’s very simple.
Just Get The F*** Over It. Keep Moving. Head Up To The Future.
Kind-hearted? No. Realistic and effective? Yes. Stoicism often pays off.
Maupassant and the Eiffel Tower
Recently read a wonderful blip on the famous and great French short story writer, Guy Maupassant. Yes, he had syphilis…maybe it enhanced his vivid storytelling…
He was horrified by the prospect of the tacky, modernistic Eiffel Tower being plopped down in the center of The City of Light. An abomination! Sacre Bleu! Putain! Merde!
But despite his protests and those of many others, so it was done.
He could not bear to look at it.
It tortured his sense of what Paris should be.
His solution?
He would go there every day with eyes averted and eat lunch in the center of the restaurant in the climbing bowels of the place.
It was the only place in Paris from which he could not see the Eiffel Tower.
What a solution!
We all have things and people we just cannot stand. Have any of us ever chosen a path of remedy as unique as Maupassant’s?
Is Soccer Coming for the NFL?
I love just about all sports and am fascinated by the pageantry, emotion, and skill of the World Cup. Obviously, it has been thunderously received by the American public. Curious — are we at a tipping point? Does the almighty NFL now have a real, emerging rival for the dollars and the interest?
Are we at a “Move Over Big Dog — There’s A New Muscle On Your Porch” moment? I think it’s coming, and sooner than we thin
Quick Book Reviews
RESURRECTION by Leo Tolstoy
- Wonderful character development — the eye of a genius — an age-old story of class, guilt, and emotional confusion. May be a bit dated to some in this day of “screens,” but to a curious seeker of human experience and foible, put it on your list.
LUSH LIFE by Richard Price
- Comes in the genre of Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City. A West Village, NYC, tale of murder, louche, lost lives, self-deceit, and nothing finished. I consider Bright Lights a one-hit wonder. This is a 60% wonder that wanders off as a snake consumes itself. Lots of “I can’t make up my mind.” Got tiresome on the backstretch.
ONCE AN EAGLE by Anton Myrer
- If you like straight-up, full-metal-jacket war and combat, this is a very real, expansive read on both World Wars and Vietnam. The protagonist is straight out of central casting, he has lots of good help, and the antagonists, and there are many, are fully formed, often bothersome, but necessary. A big read. I enjoyed it, but it’s not for everyone.
THE UNDERSTUDY by Morgan Richter
- I loved this book! The lead singer in a struggling opera company reluctantly comes to understand that her rival for her part is a very determined, amoral gal, and then come the twists. Well worth a read, fun, and you want to stay with it. Nicely done.
THE ORDINARY MAN by Steve Vesce
- A sort-of biography of FDR’s right-hand man, Harry Hopkins. Let me put it this way — the author surely has pictures of his publisher and editor. Poorly written, pedestrian, trite, and nothing new. Don’t waste your time.
THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY by Paul Andrew Hutton
- I’ll take a partial blurb from the cover: “The Shaping of the American West.” This is a unique book, taking the full view of how the West came to be in the reality and psyche of America. Almost all of us did not know, much less remember, that Pittsburgh was once considered the edge of the East. If you want to really get a big-picture, drone’s-eye view of how this nation was built, here you go. Heroic, monumental, sad, inspirational — this is a big, fine book.
TOJO by Peter Mauch
- The Japanese warlord who climbed to the top of the befuddling maze of Japanese tradition, culture, rules, and mysteries, attacked the United States, ultimately was defeated, and was tried, convicted, and executed — never admitting even one mistake or regret. Mentally made of steel. A terrific look at Japan as World War II in the Pacific became inevitable. This is excellent, readable military history.
THE GODS OF NEW YORK by Jonathan Mahler
- Gotham evolves into being birthed as a “modern” city, 1986–1990. Plenty of interesting players, plenty of money, plenty of hubris, plenty of screw-ups. Interesting. Also has a “So What” factor to it…suggest it should be read from the middle of the stack next to your bed. Not a primary. More a side piece.
A Delightful Bonus: The Bruno Series
A very talented storyteller, Martin Walker, has a series that got rolling back in 2005. He has just finished the 26th. No other way to put it…they are very good and entertaining. Fun, interesting, intriguing, too.
Bruno Courrèges is the town flic in a very small, very insular little town in southwest France, St. Denis in the Périgord. There’s always something going sideways in his bailiwick. Plenty of crime and bad actors.
These are French fictional banquets. Toss into the pots and pans great food, great wine, wonderful characters, a couple of gorgeous love interests, lots of history, stunning scenery, and beautiful land, and you want to dive in and not come up. Bruno is cool.
The quintessential summer, vacation, well, any time reads. Highly recommend.
HINT: Take them in chronological order. Start with Bruno, Chief of Police…they always tail into the next one. And no rushing! Enjoy!
One Last Inflammatory Thought
Trump keeps blowing it. And when conservative, thoughtful columnist Bret Stephens of The New York Times turns on you, you can hear the bones and chains being dragged down a dark hall.
So it goes…
OK, that’s a wrap. Everyone take care and keep reading and thinking. I send my best.
– Vernon
Please note.
New website: evernonfglenn.com
New email: evfg@evernonfglenn.com
Would love to hear from you.