I kept all my case briefs from my tenure as a prosecutor.  Back then, I knew that one day they would be useful for something.  In part, it will be for my children.  Some friends are puzzled when I tell them about all this but there are legitimate, defensible reasons.

One of the hidden blessings of working in the fields I did was the unique view of people, events, and human nature I was exposed to.  Although initially jarring and eventually numbing, it was very much eye-opening and taught me lessons that I could not have received in any academic program or other job opportunity.  The amazing amount of evil, brutality, and sadness along the occasional ray of hope, presence of grace.

The author Ecclesiastes writes that it is better to enter the house of mourning rather than that of feasting.  At first glance, no one in their right mind would choose that path much less embrace it.  Until one realizes how much more you gain by doing so.  There are only some things you can learn in the darkness.  If you’ve not confronted and wrestled with all that, it will come back to bite you one day. 

One of the major lessons I try to emphasize to my children is to be smart in different ways – book, street, people, and God.  You can’t learn all that in a book.  The fun, easy parts of the journey are important and to be treasured but it’s the other less glamorous, more difficult ones that test and instruct.

In history, you see all this play out with those able to navigate, endure, and triumph when faced with extremely difficult situation – Lincoln, Churchill, Nelson, Grant, etc.  All experienced massive personal and professional failures and setbacks before they rose to meet their destinies.  The ability to see accurately and know how to respond, react properly goes beyond mere knowledge or instinct.  It is born from struggle and suffering.

And if the darkness is to keep us apart 

And the daylight seems a long way off

And if your glass heart should crack

Stay strong 

What you’ve got they can’t deny it 

Can’t sell it or buy it

And I know it aches

And your heart it breaks

And you can only take so much

Walk on