Turning to the Law

Having been raised by an architect and a fine artist, I grew up dancing near the piano that my father played, a poor imitation of a ballerina. Gangly and uncoordinated, I could, at least, pretend to be a dancer. . .my father took me out to architectural job sites and explained how certain beams took the building load and how skylights were added to let in natural light. As for my mother, every summer we toured art fairs and we babysat her work on display, waiting for juried results, and for that special buyer who respected my mother's work and wanted to add it to his or her collection. We read Shakespere and playacted roles one year -- I was around nine years old. And if I wanted to understand the meaning of a word, my mother would point to the dictionary and say, "Look it up!" While this advice was well intentioned, perhaps my mother forgot that a dictionary meaning referred to other words, many of which I also had to "look up" until an hour had been spent to tease out the meaning of the original word I had questioned. From these beginnings, I wonder why I have turned to the law.