What Happened to you This Idle Wednesday?

I am careful not to confuse fear with dread. Fear indicates a certain amount of respect. It is one of the ways we relate to God. Jerry Bridges wrote one of my favorite books ever on the subject. One of the aspects of fear is a natural terror. This is the one residual element whereby many narrowly define the word. This small portion of fear is similar to dread, but dread doesn't have the assumption of it being meritorious.

Now that I've made this largely inconsequential distinction, I might as well reveal why I'm blathering on about it. Today, I went to court in Clearwater to deal with a situation. This is a situation where the bank wants to foreclose. Now, I see where the bank is coming from in wanting to do all these foreclosures. Much of the time, I am on their side. However, the whole procedure frustrates me.

First of all, after driving two and a half hours to get to the courthouse, I was amazed at the lack of security to get in. There was no metal detector to get in the building. But then when you made it into the courtroom, there are 100 cases of people losing their homes. It's a situation where you have people crying over losing their home, then people being fussed at for not following a dress code. A dress code, really? (And, yes, I did wear a neck tie). Have we gotten to the point in society where we don't want to hear someone's argument because they can't get the proper clothes?

In over ninety percent of the cases, it is pretty cut and dry. The problem is there is the occasional situation, where as the people who know what is going on sit and talk logically, there is a clear and easy answer. The only problem is we do not allow judges to make common sense decisions. They are bound to make decisions that follow procedures and laws exactly. He can recommend mediation, but that is about the best he can do.

And the problem is that the banks have no idea what is going on with most of these properties anyway. So, if you tell them something that makes sense, they don't know if it makes sense. And, it really doesn't behoove them monetarily to slow down enough to figure it out. So, we are stuck with this system that never looks at the individual.

This is what I dread. I sat down with opposing counsel and we agreed on the best course of action. However, her client and my client cannot depart long enough to actually accept it, and the judge can't order it. So, I am exercising in a futile process, wearing a tie I'd rather not be, and two and a half hours away, so I couldn't take my kids to school. Other than that, awesome Wednesday morning!