Hear Ye

Today I went to hear Justice Sonia Sotomayor speak. She is the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

What did I learn? Justice Sotomayor described a day in her workweek: Read, read, read, she said. She spends a good part of each day reading about court cases: potential Supreme Court cases, current cases being heard before the Supreme Court. She said that four days of the week, she takes a small part of time in her day to meet with groups visiting the Supreme Court. The groups might be American school children, college groups, international visitors - the range is broad. She maintains one day each week where she meets with no one, and that day is mostly spent writing on current court cases.

I did not realize that she is only six years older then me. Wowee. I wonder if she is familiar with the judge Deborah in the Bible? I wonder if she ever ponders her?

Justice Sotomayor was asked about her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago: what were her initial thoughts? I liked her reply. She said that she felt a heavy burden on her that she had not felt at her other judicial appointments: to be in the position to judge on matters which were at the Supreme Court level, the final judgment. She also remarked on the collegium of the members of the Supreme Court, and how they hold each other and the Court itself in great respect. She continued discussing the respect found in her workplace, explaining that not only the Justices, but everyone who works at the Supreme Court holds respect for each other and the institution, from the bottom, up.

Wowee. Every workplace should be thus and so.

Justice Sotomayor was seven minutes late to take her place on stage, and she wanted the audience to know that her delay was due to the East Coast snowstorm. When she awoke this morning, her home had no electricity, so she prepared for her quick trip to Kansas in the dark, and we can only surmise how it felt to leave for an out-of-town trip with no kitchen, no blowdrier, no lights, no nothing. And she had a smile on her face, to boot. In fact, her hour+ talk was very congenial and she had humorous anecdotes - something I surely would never expect from a Supreme Court Justice.

A nice perk for me, in the audience? I arrived to the Forum Hall at K-State 45 minutes early, stood in line for half an hour, was one of the LAST TEN PEOPLE allowed into the Forum Hall. But then...there were no available seats in the auditorium. That was problematic. But I eyed someone who looked to be in charge, and made a bee-line down to where he was standing, and sure enough, my instincts paid off: he opened a section of the VIP seating to us left standing, and I got to sit in the second row of the Forum Hall, right in front of Justice Sotomayor. That was very nice, because she is good at establishing eye contact with the audience, and I was close enough to enjoy her facial expressions. Not something those high in the nosebleed section could even remotely discern.

A good afternoon was had by me!
And a disclaimer by me, too! I am not a journalist, I did not take notes, nor photographs, nor video, (all bags, backpacks, cameras, and the ilk were prohibited) so all descriptions of discussions by Justice Sotomayor to me in the audience are mere renderings from my mid-life mind. I tried to be very accurate, though.

What a nice afternoon.