tapestry of colors

My bankruptcy class is going to be interesting, I think.
The professor is a bankruptcy attorney, and normally represents the
debtor. I seem to be coming at the subject from the perspective of
the 'banker', and therefore the creditor. Who knew that bankruptcy
could be a lively topic? While not a life changing area of law, it
does seem to be at least moderately interesting, and small enough to
have some real discussions. There were 5 of us tonight, not counting
the professor.

By contrast our Crim Pro class, which is made up of absolutely
fascinating material, has about 40 students, which will limit our
participation. I had an interesting conversation with my father this
week. He is a former police officer, but is now in his 80's, dealing
with significant health problems, and as tends to happen in our
society, is somewhat redundant and invisible. I was telling him a bit
about my new classes and when I mentioned Crim Pro, he asked if we had
talked about the Terry case at all. Of course, we had. He said that
ruling was made when he was on the force in Anchorage, and talked
about how much it helped make it possible to do good police work and
still protect oneself, while staying within the constitutional
boundaries. Fascinating view back into a time when all that mattered
to me was what boy I liked and had no interest in what my father did
to make a living, or the ethical and practical choices he made on a
daily basis.


If one could see all the layers of connectedness, what a riotous web
of color it would be. I wish there was a way to really look at the various points of connection, and have some genuine, unfiltered discussion with some others. The realities of everyday life seem to preclude such risk taking, for me as well as others. It's only when some life event forces one to step outside oneself that we seem able to take such chances, and then sometimes it is with complete strangers rather than those who love us. Which takes me to what love means, and how often it is a form of control...and there we go again.