Legal Commentary

I spent the last several days in Ann Arbor with my son, Matthew, and visiting an old friend who has been under the weather, flying back to Boston this morning.  This is complicated, but I had a plan to do Alene a favor for Mother's Day which involved getting myself from Logan to where she was playing tennis in order to pick up the car (don't ask why, but it helps her arrange her day).  This entailed riding the Silver Line hybrid bus thingie to South Station, Red Line to Central Square, and the #70 Watertown bus to Arsenal Street, except that the Red Line was shut down at South Station (the T is working on repairing damage from a fire in Downtown Crossing a couple weeks ago) with a shuttle bus taking riders to Park Street.

I took the shuttle even though it turns out it would have been faster to walk from South Station to Park Street.  I ran down the steps and the train was still waiting.  The doors were open and people were jamming in.  I slid myself into the last space with my duffel and backpack, and muttered "what fun."  A man standing next to me (very distinguished looking man in a "Route 66" baseball cap, some interesting beads, and a fabulous white goatee) glanced up and said, "Suck it up."  I laughed, and said "that's not only good advice; it's a good philosophy of life."  So we rode from Park Street to Central Square discussing why we whine, sue, seek recompense, or get surly when the world fails to live up to our expectations.  Then without realizing it, I let out an audibly deep breath.  He says, "A good sign works too."  Turns out he too was a second career academic, working on a dissertation in the education school at Harvard, having been the director of human resources for the City of Flint, Michigan.  I got his e-mail as I was jumping off the train at Central Square - all this in about seven or eight minutes.

What fun!