Karma's a b*@&! and so am I

One of my earliest cases as a young defense lawyer involved a 50-ish year old woman who was a passenger in a car my client rear-ended when traffic slowed suddenly due to an accident. My client testified at trial that there had been a car between his and the Plaintiff's which darted into the next lane to avoid the accident and he couldn't stop in time. We were in a notoriously liberal jurisdiction and were braced for the worst. She was claiming an injury to her back from the impact and we spent a ton of time wading through her prior medical records to show she had problems long before this accident.

During the Plaintiff's testimony, she was describing the activities she couldn't do anymore. She became tearful at one point, saying "I miss riding my bike". My 30 year old self noticed one of the jurors laughing a little bit as I was thinking how disingenuous her statement sounded.

Here I sit years later, having recently gone through surgery which has left me unable to resume activities I used to enjoy like cycling. Just like that Plaintiff, my condition is probably just something that developed over time as I aged, nobody's "fault". But dammit, I miss my bike now too! Feel free to laugh, it is silly. But the realization that some activities are probably forever off limits for me is something I mourn quietly now but every day. Giving myself an F in compassion.