As a lawyer amid the daily chaos of the court system, I find curious refuge in the Edgar Allen Poe story, A Descent into the Maelstrom. The tale, told by an elderly survivor to a terrified, younger listener as they cling to the windswept craggy rocks overlooking the site of the recurring phenomenon, always held powerful sway over me.
"Ooh, giant whirlpool! How scary!" you may mock. But Poe's description of the vicious immorality of nature, the helplessness that is the counterpoint to the senseless (but utterly predictable) destruction of the giant, sucking swirl of sea is chilling.
If studied carefully, the story is far more than spooky. It is an illumination. That's because the survivor who tells the tale uses a novel pair of skills to save himself: situational awareness and pattern recognition. The story is really a survival guide; a petition, not of faith, but of wisdom.
I have applied those skills in navigating the courtroom. I have applied those skills in navigating a corrupt government in my town. As we will soon learn here in Cleveland and its Cuyahoga environs, it is not the powerful who will survive the maelstrom. It is the wise.
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