Art, Souls, Paper and Turkey

"We are right, he said, and the others are wrong. To speak of these things and to try to understand their nature and, having understood it, to try slowly and humbly and constantly to express, to press out again, from the gross earth or what it brings forth, from sound and shape and colour which are the prison gates of our soul, an image of the beauty we have come to understand -- that is art."
- James Joyce

A common joke here is how to keep your soul through law school. Well, I'm working on it, and I'm convinced that only by the grace of God it won't be too difficult a task. BUT, I am rather worried about also hanging on to that part of my personality that keeps me a "whole person."

There's a concern, I think, when pursuing such a demanding academic course, to let it suck you entirely away from everything else that once made you "well rounded." To let it obsess you. To be one of "those" people who can only talk about their job -- for GOODNESS' sake! You already live it 40+ hours a week don't you? Do you REALLY want to revisit it over dinner too?
Here's my disclaimer: I certainly want to be the best law student UT ever saw... and to get A's on every exam.... but it's also become vitally important to me to keep reading James Joyce... keep listening to fantastic up-and-comers .... still be able to stop and watch and appreciate a glorious sunset. And THAT is what is so very difficult!!
And I have a feeling even the law firms that might hire me one of these days would like a well-rounded employee. It has its own other perks of random useful skills and background knowledge, and handy cocktail-party-conversation.

Problem: exams are in 20 days. In that time, minus Thanksgiving, I have to synthesize the entire semester's material for each class, because each class has one, and only one exam, that will presumably test what I learned over the entire four months. Why is this a problem? Because I find myself suddenly struck by the blogging muse again...after almost a semester's worth of absence and certainly an inauspicious beginning to my blogging career!

The irony: One of my classes also has one paper. The paper is worth 20% of my grade. The paper is due tomorrow. You'd think I was sick of writing by now.
Or maybe I am hungering for writing something, anything, that's NOT an analysis of caselaw! I do love law school, I love the opportunities and I even get a huge kick out of analyzing caselaw (don't laugh--it's fascinating!). But the soul needs a varied diet too.

So with that, here's my post-Thanksgiving resolution: to blog more regularly, eat my vegetables, and start running again. Oh wait, not the running part!

Happy-Almost-Thanksgiving! Remember the pilgrims!