Duty in Microcosm

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OK, weird confluence approaching: Monday the 19th. September. The late Queen's funeral and the slated first day of my jury service, which I guess will probably be postponed due to the State occasion, or one would suppose and hope. As I said yesterday, it feels fin de siècle at the moment, and being called to pass judgement on a fellow human being or beings in a court of law at the age of sixty-seven, feels like a rite of passage I imagined had passed me by on my journey through life.

Frankly, I don't feel particularly up to the task, or even particularly willing to engage with it, but engage I must, according to law. The Romantic in me imagines all manner of Twelve Angry Men scenarios, but the actuality will be inevitably be stultifyingly mundane. However, it remains that this is a civic duty, and I'm beholden to society to perform it to the best of my meagre abilities. It's a curious and small connection to the late monarch and her distinct will and ability to just get on with it.

As I said, I'm not a monarchist, but a socialist republican; which philosophy carries with it social responsibilities that need to be faced and discharged as they present themselves. That said, I still feel uneasy about the task, and that I won't be up to serving the justice required of me equitably. We'll see: I can't keep you posted on specifics for legal reasons, but I'll post on the generics of my experience.

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