3-17-22 HOW RBG & I ARE JUST ALIKE

The best thing about getting older and not having a job that requires you to be somewhere in the morning is the sleeping-in. I waited decades for this, and it does not disappoint! Sometimes I think back to all those years of waking up for hungry crying babies, or early school schedules (not made for our family at all!) or jobs I've had, I get all giddy when I realize I don't have to do that anymore. I thought when my kids were on the brink of leaving home that my heart would break into pieces and I would not know how to put them back together. And indeed, it was taxing on my mother-heart. But the rest of me really loved not having to get up so early! Oh, how I love my bed! Well, at least in the morning. It is cozy at night, but I have the darnedest time falling and staying asleep before 2 am. Which leads me to something Dave told us last night.

Two days ago was the birthday of Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She would have been 89 on March 15, 2022. David currently presides over a national conference of trial court judges for the American Bar Association. The particular group of judges who serve in the leadership of this large organization is really dynamic. They are diverse, and brilliant, and cohesive. Dave is an anomaly among them as a white male LDS judge, and he fits right in because of the broad mindedness and general accepting and kind nature of these people. I am guessing there may be a dozen to 15 of them who serve as leaders of state trial court judges throughout the US. They meet a few times a year. Not being one who knows all that much about their  objectives, I can't give you dependable info about their united accomplishments or purpose (Dave would have to do that, and he's currently in court), I'll just say, since I've known this group a few years now, I like them a lot. I sometimes travel with Dave to national ABA conventions, and this group held their annual meeting here in SLC last year, so I got to spend a bit of time with them.

So, anyway, these judges met virtually Tuesday night for their annual celebration of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Birthday. Dave said this year they had one of her law clerks join them and talk a bit about the late Justice from an intimate and personal standpoint, giving them a glimpse of what she was like in the day to day. Dave and I have seen the movies depicting her dynamic life, but this up-close-and-personal viewpoint was something a little more real. This little tidbit from her clerk totally warmed my heart.

She said Justice Ginsberg, if she could, would sleep in till 11 am. Her court schedule did not always allow for that, but if she could, that's what she would do. Her clerk followed that with a pause, saying that more often than not the emails she got from Justice Ginsberg would be sent at 2 am.

You know that feeling when you realize someone else you admire has the same "flaw" as you? Yup, that was my feeling! I felt it all the way up till 2 am, when I finished my writing and made my way to bed. 

(By the way, two of my sisters and I were texting till 3 am, from our beds. It's genetic.)

Here's to all the good stuff RBG left us, including these great thoughts:

Not everything you read on the internet
is the exact gospel truth.
(Including stuff I write. This is third hand info.)