Smoking, then a matter of personal preference, is now proscribed by law while abortion, then proscribed by law,is now accepted as a matter of personal preference. Hunting and trapping, then simply a sporting life style, is now considered an abomination while homosexuality, then an abomination, is now accepted as simply an alternative life style. Gentility, which once permeated our culture, is now moribund with only its memory preserved by cinematic resurrections of Victorian novels. And moral precepts, once etched in stone, are now written on the wind. Thinking like a lawyer has been of help in understanding the problems but it doesn't help much in crafting solutions.
Intellect alone can never elevate human-kind to a higher plane of moral enlightenment.
We must seek help elsewhere. There's a lesson to be learned from this insightful poet. It is only if we employ those twin identities of the intellectually trained lawyer and the morally sensitive child of God that we can achieve our redemption. I wish Dean Townsend hadn't wasted those golden moments of first impression by presenting the cyclopian view that my legal education was to be simply an intellectual pursuit. He would have done better by reciting a bit of Robert Frost.