Zen And The Art Of Jury Duty
The only meditation-like experience I've had was in an old acting class. At the start of each class, we'd do a bunch of silly warm up exercises- improve tag, circle story telling - to get our minds working and our excess energy out. Then our teacher would have us all lay in a circle on the dusty wood floor. In a deep soothing voice, he'd tell us to close our eyes, and feel the floor against our bodies and our bodies against the floor. He'd tell us to let the weight of our bodies, our feet, legs, arms, shoulders, backs, fingers, necks, toes, sink into the floor. As he was speaking, little by little, I became aware of every inch of my skin and not aware of it at the same time. I felt my weight melt into the floor and I felt the floor against the backs of my legs, my palms, my back, and the heaviness of being melted away, little by little as I became more aware and not aware. He'd then talk us through what I now refer to as "ball of light". I still use "ball of light" when I have trouble sleeping (this week I must be fucking glowing). He'd tell us to imagine a ball of light in the center of our bodies, to imagine what it felt like and try to actually feel it. This magical ball of light was warm and soft and released tension and stress and brought awareness to every cell it touched. He'd tell us to move and spread the light around our bodies, from out toes to our ankles, to our knees, backs, lungs, shoulders, necks, arms, wrists, palms, fingertips. And he'd tell us to release the light from our fingertips, back into the floor. We'd all get up, more focused, more centered, more relaxed, more in touch with every cell in our bodies and our minds. Ready to feel and experience, to embrace a new character, mindset, emotion, situation with every open cell.
What does any of this have to do with jury duty?
A lot more than you'd think.
If you're not actually in the middle of being questioned as a potential juror for a case, there's not much to do at jury duty. You sit around with a hundred or so strangers in a big room. There's only so much reading, napping and waiting around for one of the crappy connected-to-the-internet-via-phone-line laptops to 1) work 2) become available. All of a sudden, I was left alone with my mind with more time for that than I've had in a very long time. And since I didn't bring my laptop, it wasn't time to work, or to even think about work - ok I did spend some time outlining plot points and mentally designing my dvd in between pages of Angels in America - but after a while, I just put my ipod on and sat. This is something I normally reserve for the subway. My ipod think time usually only lasts about 15min (23min if you count walking time, which I don't, because trying to get anywhere in rush hour in this city can often turn into an olympic event) each way. Now, I had hours laid out before me to do nothing but sit, think, listen, and daydream. This forced hiatus from my daily life ended up being more of a mental vacation than a pain in the ass.
Sure I spent some time almost getting on a criminal trial. I was the last person called for the second round of juror questioning on the second morning, and by that point I was actually hoping to get a spot in the box. I have far too much curiosity to hear the outline of what looked to be a pretty good case just to get dismissed in the final round. I think it was the defense lawyer, he didn't seem too keen on the fact that I have two retired and one active cop in my family. If he only knew how far to the left of my family I fall, not to mention my powers of logical persuasion (I never really got in trouble in high school because I could always out-argue my parents, my dad always wanted me to go to law school...) he'd regret his decision. I could have possibly won that case for him. I also really wanted to see the drug dealer that was allegedly burglarized and shot at by the defendant.
Once I was dismissed, it was back downstairs to my one hundred or so new friends and my last few hours of zen filled mental vacation.
Want to find your own zen? Check this out:
http://www.do-not-zzz.com/
(it's amusing)
What does any of this have to do with jury duty?
A lot more than you'd think.
If you're not actually in the middle of being questioned as a potential juror for a case, there's not much to do at jury duty. You sit around with a hundred or so strangers in a big room. There's only so much reading, napping and waiting around for one of the crappy connected-to-the-internet-via-phone-line laptops to 1) work 2) become available. All of a sudden, I was left alone with my mind with more time for that than I've had in a very long time. And since I didn't bring my laptop, it wasn't time to work, or to even think about work - ok I did spend some time outlining plot points and mentally designing my dvd in between pages of Angels in America - but after a while, I just put my ipod on and sat. This is something I normally reserve for the subway. My ipod think time usually only lasts about 15min (23min if you count walking time, which I don't, because trying to get anywhere in rush hour in this city can often turn into an olympic event) each way. Now, I had hours laid out before me to do nothing but sit, think, listen, and daydream. This forced hiatus from my daily life ended up being more of a mental vacation than a pain in the ass.
Sure I spent some time almost getting on a criminal trial. I was the last person called for the second round of juror questioning on the second morning, and by that point I was actually hoping to get a spot in the box. I have far too much curiosity to hear the outline of what looked to be a pretty good case just to get dismissed in the final round. I think it was the defense lawyer, he didn't seem too keen on the fact that I have two retired and one active cop in my family. If he only knew how far to the left of my family I fall, not to mention my powers of logical persuasion (I never really got in trouble in high school because I could always out-argue my parents, my dad always wanted me to go to law school...) he'd regret his decision. I could have possibly won that case for him. I also really wanted to see the drug dealer that was allegedly burglarized and shot at by the defendant.
Once I was dismissed, it was back downstairs to my one hundred or so new friends and my last few hours of zen filled mental vacation.
Want to find your own zen? Check this out:
http://www.do-not-zzz.com/
(it's amusing)
posted by ath at 8:37 PM
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