About the Name

First, it's my brother's 18th birthday, so happy birthday, James! If I had any idea that we would still be in this war by the time he turned 18, I would have made him go to conscientious objector training when I did a few years ago. But he is also old enough to vote now, and he assured me today that he too plans to vote for the candidate most likely to end the war. Hopefully we don't have to worry too much . . . . This is also a significant birthday because it means that my parents now have four adult children. In a few months, they may even have an empty nest for the first time in 27 years!

I thought I should probably write a little bit about the name of this blog. If there was anything I learned in law school, it was to cite my sources! Like the quote at the top of the page, it is by Douglas V. Steere, describing the life of Thomas R. Kelly, in A Testament of Devotion. The full quote is:

"An adequate life, like Spinoza's definition of an adequate idea, might be described as a life which has grasped intuitively the nature of all things, and has seen and refocused itself to this whole. An inadequate life is one that lacks this adjustment to the whole nature of things—hence its twisted perspective, its partiality, its confusion. The story of Thomas Kelly's life is the story of a passionate and determined quest for adequacy."

I seriously doubt that Mr. Steere meant the last sentence to be funny, but it struck me as hilarious, and so true that I had to use it. I also really like long titles, like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I thought about naming the blog The Story of a Passionate and Determined Quest for Adequacy, but that seemed like overkill.

If I can manage to keep posting, I think I might get addicted to blogging. The vast majority of the writing I have done for the past few years has been in someone else's voice, either as a co-author or a judicial clerk, which is basically the legal equivalent of ghostwriting. Although that has been very good practice for me and has made me a much more careful writer, it is incredibly liberating to write in my own voice and feel like the only person who might get in trouble for it is me. Adjectives, here I come!

I am not a photographer, so I probably won't post a lot of pictures. That said, I think I'll end with a picture of Albus, taken by my fabulous pet sitter, Kiersten.



I think you'll agree that he is one of the top two most adorable cats in the world.