Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Beds' non-Swan Song

Today's Recorder has Not a Swan Song, in which Beds explains that he "chickened out" about retiring this month:
Turns out I don’t have the huevos. I can’t face the idea of not doing what I do now. I’ve been on the bench for 33 years. I’m starting to get the hang of it. I can’t quit now.
This was good news to my wife, who had lobbied against retirement with the irrefutable logic that, “You can’t retire because I don’t think I—all by myself—can provide you with enough ego strokes to get you through the day.”
But mostly, I just can’t walk away from the people I’ve spent a half-century in the company of lawyers. It’s a perk of the practice I don’t think we give enough thought to. Until we contemplate doing without it.
Lawyers are great company. They’re smart, funny, hard-working and dedicated to making the world a better place. They’re fun to talk to and easy to respect.
There are other people like that. And I could probably find some in retirement. But why go looking for what I’ve already got.