Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 18, 2011
Under Analysis
The secret of happiness, and other lawyer jokes
Spencer Farris
The Levison Towers have been buried in snow this week. Dexter, the physical plant supervisor, is usually a happy chap. Lately, he grunts his hellos as he heads out the door. The fact that he looks like he works in a salt mine is no accident – he has handled more ice and snow melt than many miners. When happy becomes Grumpy, I decided to do what Snow White did – I fled the building.
The weather must be bad if I am willing to travel to get away from it. When a deposition in Texas needed a lawyer, my hand shot up. Even Texas seemed better than the local cold, and for me to prefer Texas should have been a sign that I wasn’t in my right mind.
Only as I packed my bag and headed to the airport did I remember that traveling to Texas meant flying. I hate to fly. I don’t hate flying time so much as all the things one must go through these days to fly. Shucking my shoes and belt is a long ways from the time when people used to dress up to fly.
Once on board, I was asked if I preferred a peanut or pretzel. I said “pretzel” and was given just that. A tiny bag with a tiny pretzel inside.
I wish they had offered breath mints. The man sitting next to me was attempting to smuggle a muskrat in his mouth. He was a large man with tiny feet and I immediately distrusted him. I wasn’t yet ready to look through my file for the deposition so I reached for one of the magazines in the seat pocket.
I had two choices – Sky Mall and the Southwest Spirit magazine. Ever since the “incident” I’m not allowed to read the Sky Mall. Upside down tomatoes are only good ideas at 30,000 feet, it seems.
Spirit is one of the few bright spots in my flying experience. It is filled with facts about destinations I won’t get to on my brief trip and the occasional thought-provoking article. The cover story was about happiness.
For a control freak trial attorney in the 17th row at 30,000 feet, happiness was miles away. Still, I am typically happy. What did Spirit know that I didn’t?
Money doesn’t make us happy. Power doesn’t do it, either. Perhaps the most important factor, according to these authors, is that happy people choose to be happy. Paradoxically, even happy people can’t be happy all the time. Yet here I was, mostly happy, without a clue as to why. I finished the article like my pretzel, wanted more.
The 17th row of a full flight to Nowhere, Texas is a strange place to ponder. I closed my eyes and feigned sleep to avoid a conversation with muskrat breath. But my mind raced. Trial lawyers think that every question must have an answer. Shouldn’t I know what makes me happy? How can I BE happy if I can’t answer that one question?
After about 30 minutes I decided to look through my file and prepare for the deposition ahead. My client, a widow, had told me several stories about her husband. He sounded larger-than-life; the kind of person who lit up a room when he entered it and began to tell big stories and jokes. I had never met him but saw the happiness on her face when she discussed him. And I felt her unhappiness that he was gone. None of this came out in the black-and-white of his medical records. His injuries had been painful and his death drawn out. The fact that she missed him wasn’t there, either.
At the deposition, his doctor described with clinical precision the treatment the husband had received. Nothing earth shattering came to light. Like much trial work, this deposition was just another task to be completed.
We boxed up our files and left for the airport to return home. On the way out the door, a nurse asked if we would be happy to get back home. It was the end of a long day, and here I was, back at the beginning with that word.
I thought of the smiles on my wife and kids when I would open the door that night. The smile my client wouldn’t see on the face she had lived for, once upon a time. I thought about the relief she would have when her case was finally over, and that resolution was now one step closer. I am always happy, I told her. Though I was heading for another four hour flight in a packed plane, I meant it.
©2011 under analysis llc. under analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Spencer Farris is the founding partner of The S.E. Farris Law Firm in St Louis, Missouri. He is usually happiest when he gets off an airplane, anywhere. Comments or criticisms about this column may be sent c/o this newspaper or directly to the Levison Group via email at comments@levisongroup.com.
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