Hello on Saturday!

What an exhausting week! One of my dear clients passed away, a widow with family in other parts of country but none here. (And all of them very nice people, but none of them so closely related.) Even her personal representatives and successor trustees are in cities other than Miami. Sometimes this kind of situation leaves the great burden of the immediate aftermath of an unexpected death on the law office, and so it is here. It made us also think of the other older clients we have in similar situations, and the need to review their files to be sure the plans on what to do in the two weeks after death are up to date.

We also dealt with our third try in about 4 months to hire a new associate. It was a successful try in the sense that we avoided hiring someone who, we saw finally, just would not be a good fit. In the process, we continue to learn that it takes a good deal of effort and focus and time to hire the right person. We did a lot of research and there were three interviews with this young person, a person with enormous gifts, on the one hand, but enormous expectations on the other that, finally, didn't square with our practice culture.

This reminds me of an article I read in World Magazine in its August 14 issue about internet matchmaking services such as eHarmony and Match.com. According to the article, sufficient time has gone by so that studies are emerging on how well these services do. One of them indicates that courtship ending in marriage takes about half the time as the more traditional methods to find a match. This is not all good: the parties presume that, because they make a match on the basis of rather shallow data, they can move forward faster, often to their ultimate detriment. It seems to me that letting time do its good work in helping one understand the other person is crucial. What a blessing it was to me that prolonged courtships through high school and college did not end in marriage but, for one good reason or another, simply dissolved with time and circumstance, leaving me much the wiser and better prepared for the one that led to marriage.

That World issue I mentioned also has an interview with "controversial theologian N.T. Wright" by Marvin Olasky (I am beginning to become aware of the controversy); a feature on Marco Rubio; a very helpful essay by James Le Fanu on "The Disappointment of the Double Helix"; another essay on Global Warning; and a description of a sharing website called NeighborGoods. As I've done before, I heartily recommend World. With its new format, the magazine is better than ever.

So, this morning, I'm in the office, getting a lot of work done (!). But enjoying the quiet after such a noisy week.