Military and Football allegories

After receiving my marching orders for the morning from headquarters in North Decatur, I discussed the battlefield with my lieutenants and made provision for their part in the battle tomorrow. Now the various places to which we all must travel are covered, despite the fact that I had to bring in a new trooper to cover part of the theater. Nevertheless, we expect cold weather tomorrow and perhaps ice on the roads as we travel.

Cindy has already made plans for my equipment, with flannel-lined pants, sweaters, jackets, heavy shoes. My transportation is sound now and I look forward to the travels tomorrow. These days, there seems to be little that I can depend on from the standpoint of my business, other than the fact that there always seems to be more from season to season. These foreclosure sales are one of the few parts of my present business on which I can depend. That is sad, perhaps, but something that must be done.

In my office, I have a poster of an Andrew Wyeth painting depicting a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There is nothing in the picture which would clue you in to its subject, other than the barns and the pastures trailing off into the distance. However, this is a picture of a farm foreclosure. Knowing that, the somber colors and the stillness of the scene have always caught my attention and I knew I wanted a copy of the poster for my office.

The picture itself is interesting. The textures of the painting are more interesting. The grass and the tracked mud on the drive in to the scene are wonderful. One of the people in the picture, shown from the back, at a distance, is wearing a red coat. Other than that, most of the colors are browns and tans and greys.

The picture is a testament to the somberness of the task. When I drive around North Georgia on these monthly foreclosure sales, I enjoy the drive, the country through which I travel, if not the actual meaning of the task. So many a lawyer's duties require a certain amount of philosophy to take on the business without being overtaken emotionally by the gravitas of the task.

Still, I served as an offensive lineman in football long enough to realize that not every task in the game requires the glory available to a running back who scores or a receiver who catches the ball in its trajectory and carries it into the end zone or the quarterback who starts the play. So much of the game requires a lineman's careful plodding. In foreclosures, one must act as an offensive lineman, who takes on his dull task despite the lack of glory and the requirement of simply completing the task.

Of course, where is the linebacker in this game? There are few linebackers in foreclosure sales. I don't see them much. I remember seeing a lawyer in LaGrange who was representing a foreclosed party, trying to stop the foreclosure process. Perhaps he was a linebacker in this game. There are very few out there. I was a linebacker for so long. It would be nice to take on that sly, skillful predatory mantle again.