After the too darn hot invasions
of politics upon our Spring, the
deficit of bliss has been feeling
to me, as any deferred sea voyage
felt to Melville's Ishmael; and I
wrote to a friend, that I wanted
to turn to envisioning very happy
things, really happy things, like
a sail in a kayak, at a minimum.
Such wordless things really do af-
ford le mot juste in riposte and
repair - not remotely in evasion -
of torments from our gratingly
self-important candidates: a grue-
some rapture in readiness to lead
representing, to our common hear-
ing, the nadir of being qualified
to do so. It was with sheer good
luck, I suppose, on hearing NPR's
Fresh Air discussing a new study
of Justice Brandeis, I was drawn
to the entirely serviceable one I
already possess, to remember that
what I welcome in an exemplar, is
one who will let one feel clean.
Not free merely from molestation,
but of humiliation, of scorn, of
usage against one's integrity, as
if there were no health in us.
To honor Brandeis, the faculty at
Yale Law School proposed giving him
an honorary degree. According to
Thurman Arnold, President James
Rowland Angell turned down the re-
commendation. The following year
the faculty again nominated the
Justice, Angell agreed, but the
trustees said no. The 3rd year the
faculty sent in Brandeis' name, An-
gell approved, the trustees agreed,
but the Yale Corporation turned it
down. Finally, in the 4th year the
faculty said yes, the trustees said
yes, and the Corporation also approv-
ed. Justice Brandeis, however, said
No, having imposed upon himself a
rule against such honors.
His discipline will never be the
tenor of this election. Could it
guide one, then, to withstand it?
Melvin I. Urofsky
Louis D. Brandeis
A Life
Random House
Schocken Books, 2009©
Michael Bidner
photography
Pont Neuf, 1990
Potsdam, 1996
