His Honor

I'm a peon swimming in a sea of impressive people. I realize there are many traits that make people impressive but for now, I'm talking professional achievement.

On Friday, the husband and I joined many friends to watch The Honorable William T. Lawrence sworn in as a United States District Judge. I watched him sworn in as a state judge in 2002 but this is federal and it's a huge accomplishment. It involves:

Being nominated by the President.
Going before the Senate for confirmation.
Having a background check that sounds intrusive and invasive.

I suspect it also includes:

Sleepless nights where you evaluate every decision you've ever made and every dumb thing you've ever done.

Every dignitary I could bring to mind was there: the governor, the sheriff, the head of the Indiana Supreme Court and many others. Our esteemed senior senator, Richard Lugar, spoke on his behalf.

If you've ever been in a courtroom, most of them are quite bland. It's nothing like you see on "Law and Order." Our federal courthouse is quite majestic and would make a great movie set. Picture "A Few Good Men." Now bump it up a notch. It's that beautiful and a little overwhelming.

It was a great balance of toasts to his accomplishments and laughs about his height. No one lets his head get too big, not that there was ever any fear of that. When his wife participated in the swearing in and then put the robe on for the first time, I cried. I heard a few sniffles behind me.

My friend Billy is now a United States District Judge. When we meet at the club or a group dinner, I always say, "Hello, Your Honor."

To know him is my honor.

Gay Marriage

California's recent ruling to allow gay marriage has been in the national news lately. I'm just conservative enough for the word "marriage" between two same sex people to rankle me. I'm just liberal enough to think this is none of my business and why can't they have some of the benefits that are automatic with legal marriage?

One of our city's largest employers recognizes domestic partnerships in terms of benefits, etc. I suspect more and more companies will do the same in coming years. It's a good time to be a lawyer because I am certain that many of these unions will fail and without a legal partnership, people will be suing for what they assume is rightfully theirs.

I don't have the answers. The heterosexual model of marriage has proven to be less than ideal. The statistics are dismal.

As a society, we seem to have surrendered to the idea of a baby or two before marriage as an okay thing. Two people living together is no longer considered living in sin. Divorce isn't shocking. (I'm not judging -- I've done a couple of these things myself.)

I don't understand the fear. What could gay marriage do to this institution that we haven't already done?