Packing away one of our LBCambridge residential events, as we did again last Tuesday evening, is a time when reflection and exhaustion compete quietly for my attention. The banners are furled away, tables and chairs are stacked in corners, and the unused writing pads and pens are packed up to reappear in a few months’ time. The room quickly empties of its recharging hubbub; soon the sound of animated conversation inside the wonderful Old Hall is just a fond and gentle memory of the people we have met and who we encouraged to share their stories so that they might help each other to be both brilliant and kind.
In our separate and very busy lives, we are all passing through, everyone of us on our own untrodden paths, but for a short while all our paths cross at this place and we pause together for a few moments in time; a base camp for the mind and soul. At the start of the event we hold their hopes in our hands, but by the end they now hold our hopes in theirs.
With the room now empty of people and with the doors wide open, the space fills with the sound of a distant clattering trolley taking dirty coffee cups away, and a cool evening draught arrives with a sense of my time to go.
Before I finally close the door, I sit for a little while longer on the stage and remember the moments we made them think and pause and laugh and wonder about the opportunity they have to make their difference. We asked them to be the grown-ups in the world and to make their hopes become real, because now is the time when the career gods are shining so brightly on their talents. It will not always be this way.
In a room that is hundreds of years old we are beyond blessed to sit down with delegates who, despite what they may feel about themselves, have more than a hundred years of accumulated experience between them. In such a space we know we can be certain that there will be the answers to everything; either in the lived experiences of the people there, or in their ingenuity, creativity and intellect to explore and find them.
When it is over, a sort of melancholic peace sits on my shoulders. I am filled with hope for the wonderful contribution the delegates will make. I see their ambition and their integrity and their love for their work; but I also see the risk they may exhaust their minds and bodies on the barbed fences of misplaced priorities. Most of all I do not want them to play small when they should be bold. The legal profession is a precious but precarious barricade protecting us and our society, and on which good men and women must stand together to speak truth to power. It is however more fragile than ever, and we must never take it for granted.
As I gather up my thoughts and assemble my weary bones for the drive home, I take a last look at the space where we made moments in time seem precious and real. I know these moments are now safe in the hearts and minds of our delegates; lovingly wrapped parcels of guiding wisdom that were shaped and shared in a special place, and which are now quietly tucked away for when they will be needed most.
Packing away the moments that make up some great days, but time now to close the door and turn out the lights, until the next time.
Take care. Paul xx
