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Volume XIII, Issue II Be a Connoisseur of Lifeby La Ronda D. Barnes Learning one's limitations can be a time-saving, stress-relieving occurrence. My education on one limitation came recently as, despite my endeavors to read and take courses, to listen to friends and eavesdrop on strangers, I could not master the intricacies of red wine. I will never be a red wine connoisseur. My activities, however, were not a total waste as I discovered that, in many ways, we, as individuals, are a lot like individual bottles of red wine. Few would dispute the fact that the vineyard in which we grew, our family name, and even our packaging affects the value we are given by others, the places where we reside, and the people with whom we dine. Like a Bordeaux, no matter how well-bred or pampered, or how much we may offer the world as the years go by, our full value and our potential is not reached until we enter the "later" years of life. Like a red Burgundy, we are only able to offer the world our best — in terms of common sense, character, wisdom, and intriguing complexity — after we have had time to age. Unfortunately, while many recognize the value of a well-aged bottle of red wine, many fail to see the value of age in their fellow human beings or to savor time spent with elderly colleagues and friends. Offering opportunities for young lawyers to recognize and appreciate the value of age and to assist those who have attained their full value is the goal of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division's (ABA-YLD) special initiative called Service to Seniors. As of February 1999, more than sixty affiliated young lawyer organizations, including the Washington Young Lawyers Division, have signed on to the Service to Seniors cause. From entering the homes of the elderly to provide basic needs assessments to conducting workshops on advanced directives or consumer fraud issues at senior centers and assisted living facilities, to publishing or distributing consumer pamphlets on issues that effect the elderly, to visiting the elderly with friendly pets to offer companionship, young lawyers are providing legal and non-legal services to senior citizens across the nation. In exchange for offering advice and companionship, young lawyers in the Service to Seniors family have the opportunity to learn about history from those who lived it and to hear words of wisdom and advice that can only be gained through years of experience. I often tease my colleagues by reminding them that although their forty or fifty year old parents may have been right most of the time, my senior aunt, who raised me and was in her sixties when I was born, was always right. Now, as I start to gain in years, I understand what I could not understand as a child: that no matter how much we learn from books, there is no substitute for interacting with people on a daily basis. From navigating office politics, to romance, to raising children of our own, we gain our best knowledge from experience and from evaluating those experiences with others who have been down the same road many years ago. Sharing and communicating with elderly citizens as Service to Seniors volunteers gives young lawyers an opportunity to see the road that lies ahead and to learn how to travel that road with success. I encourage you to make the time to join with young lawyers across the state of Washington and across the country as a Service to Seniors volunteer. By doing so, you will learn to master the intricacies of human nature. You will learn how to be a connoisseur of life. La Ronda D. Barnes is the Chair of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (ABA-YLD). She works for the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia. Service to Seniors Reminders:
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