Judge Metes Justice

             I remember the day a long time ago, early winter 2005, when my friend and neighbor Dean Pineles retired as a Vermont trial judge.  After a long career on the bench Dean called to say he’d stepped down and was on his way to buy a ski pass.

Most of us when we retire from a job well done would maybe tend a garden, adopt a sport, volunteer for this or that.  And, in fact, for a while Dean did just that: EMT with Stowe Rescue, Stowe Development Review Board, Copley Hospital Board. Dean’s wife, Kristina Stahlbrand, after a wonderful career with the South Burlington School System seemed as well to be settling in to enjoying life in our fair town. But retirement has not gone the typical route for Dean and Kristina.

Not content to visit local coffee shops and pontificate about the world, Dean took a different path.  He became a criminal court judge in war-scarred Kosovo.  

On Hope, Life and My Ántonia

 My home town, each Spring, hosts an event called the “Weekend of Hope,” which is a retreat for cancer survivors and their families.   I was invited this year to do a reading at an ecumenical service at Stowe’s Community Church, and was deeply touched and a bit intimidated by the request to read something.  The charge was to do a reading about hope.

For my reading I chose two bits from My Ántonia by Willa Cather.  We named our daughter after the main character, not least because of the way Cather’s Ántonia tackles adversity throughout the story and finds a pathway to happiness.  I read small sections from the beginning of the story and the end. 

The process of thinking about hope and why this particular book has had such an impact on my own life was a good one.  The thoughts that came from the process seemed worth sharing.