Chris is going back to school next year to get his LLM in Environmental Law. He's been accepted to programs in Colorado, here in DC and Vermont but we're really hoping the Navy sends him to Vermont. We get an opinion but not really a say, so we're waiting for the final word. Vermont has the best program and the town is just adorable. We spent the weekend there, just Chris, me, and the baby, touring the law school and looking at houses. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I don't think we met an unfriendly person on our entire trip. Vermont Law School is apparently the only law school in the country that is situated in a town without a stop light. You could walk across the whole town in less than ten minutes--there's a village square with a free ice-skating rink, a food co-op, a smattering of little restaurants and bars kept alive by the law students, a shallow river running through it all, and the cutest little public library you ever saw. Pretty much our dream place to live and a far cry from our current location right outside DC.
Also it was very cold and covered with ice, but I suppose nowhere is perfect.
When Chris got his acceptance package, a copy of yes! magazine was included. I flipped through it and immediately texted pictures of the most outrageous parts to a friend with an, "oh no, look what we've gotten ourselves into now" sentiment attached. I mean, we are clearly not the typical applicants to this school. We don't hold all the right opinions and we obviously have more children than is appropriate given the horrific strain they will eventually be putting on the world's future resources. But as I sat down to actually give the thing a fair reading, I realized that it contained a really great article that I had read online just a few days before, not realizing it's source. And then I thought, I'm a jerk.
Now the general level of discourse in this particular magazine isn't great, my first impression was that it was mostly a manifesto against the president, and no matter who that level of vitriol is directed at I'm not really interested in reading it. But if you can overlook it, and I really tried, there were plenty of things that I agreed with and places where I certainly had common ground with the authors. The tone of the thing in general just made those places difficult to dig out. I'm hoping that next year will provide opportunities for lots of real discussions and sharing of different perspectives with the other students we'll be meeting. The house we've got our eye on is right next to the school and would be perfect for dinner parties and late night conversations with new friends just like we had when Chris was in law school in Pennsylvania one hundred years ago. Give or take.
And if it's one thing I know law students want it's free home cooked meals. If you cook it, they will come.
Just to clarify I certainly do care about the environment--just in more of a Wendell Berry way than say, an Al Gore way. If that makes sense? This article is great and describes the importance of provision and good stewardship of our world right now instead of a vague and terrifying fear of future disaster. I know, it's another yes! article. I found it when I was searching for the first one. I'm still not subscribing :)
And if you like that little taste of Wendell Berry, may I recommend his newest book (affiliate link), The Art of Loading Brush. I've only read the first two essays and I usually don't recommend things I haven't finished, but they were amazing and really flesh out the ideas in the article further. And then once you've finished that book you should probably just go on and read literally anything else you can find by him--there are more books of essays, poetry, fiction. You can't go wrong.
So, to recap: we may or may not be moving to Vermont this summer, we are cautiously optimistic that we will but also trying not to get our hopes up, I'm occasionally guilty of judging books by their very liberal covers but I'm working on it, I really love Wendell Berry and you should too.
And if anyone has tips on Vermont living I'd love to hear them!