Just So Many Shades of Gray

Now the hardness of this world

Slowly grinds your dreams away

Making a fool's joke 

Out of the promises we make

And what seemed black and white 

Turns just so many shades of gray

We lose ourselves in work to do,

Work to do and bills to pay...

-Bruce Springsteen

Always bills to pay, right?  COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our day-to-day but it has not affected that one piece of it.  Not for me at least.  If notifications have arrived from the mortgage company, the utility company, etc. then I must confess, I have missed them.  And I have searched for them, I assure you.  Vigorously, in fact. 

I have spent the past quarter-century earning my living in the practice of law.  My industry has been affected by COVID-19.  Not merely in the manner law is presently being practiced but, also, by whom.  A number of large firms, known colloquially as "BIG LAW" have enacted a variety of measures with an eye towards ensuring their doors remain open to serve their clients now and after this is finally over. Some of those measures have included postponement of bonuses, reduction of salaries, and elimination of positions.  Personally, I know several very talented attorneys who have lost their jobs during this pandemic because of COVID-19's economic impact.  I know not how they will make it through to the other side of this. Worse for them of course, is that right not neither do they. 

To date, COVID-19 has not cost me my job.  I commend the Firm's managing partner, Mark Tabakin, and my fellow partners and associates for continuing to do what we do during this period. I neither see nor speak to any of them most days - an arrangement that pleases me and makes them fucking over the moon giddy - but I presume that they spend their day-to-day as I spend mine. I work.  Twelve-plus hours a day.  COVID-19 has changed where I work. It has not changed the need for me to work.  That need is what it is, which is a constant.   Work to do and bills to pay.  As you do, I have both. 

Tonight, the sun shall set.  Heads and pillows shall meet at their point of blissful intersection. We shall have won today. Each of us. All of us...

But the stars are burning bright

Like some mystery uncovered,

I'll keep moving through the dark

With you in my heart

My blood brother...

-Bruce Springsteen    

-AK