Desensitization and the Start of Forge Tryouts - June 10 and 11

I suppose I'll begin this post with the more superficial stuff. Today I went to some pick-up at Schenley Park (self-titled "high level" pick-up). A few Forge guys were there including the captain. I felt awfully out of shape, but managed to get a layout d the first point I was in and got bookends the last point of the day, so...I feel pretty good about myself. I just can't wait for No Surf. I realize that I need to focus more on defense (especially on using my body) and that when cutting I need to end my deep cuts earlier (it's obvious after a certain point when it's not going to be thrown, and once you get too deep it's pretty hard to make a viable in cut). In terms of fitness, my legs feel powerful, but aerobically I'm a mess. I may need to start going on long runs or something. Too much hard breathing and too many cramps. Anyway, I'm pumped for Cleveland and the Boston Invite.

On a more serious note, yesterday was my first all group meeting with Fed Up! It started off with a really interesting and depressing presentation by a woman whose son had been wrongly convicted of 3rd degree murder. It was all the more striking because I've recently been watching The Wire. When hearing about a true story it's hard not to take it and interpret it in the same way that you would an episode of Law & Order or The Wire. It's hard to understand that this isn't something being presented for your entertainment or edification, and that there are real people involved whose whole lives may be destroyed by crooked police work, incompetent public defenders and inattentive juries. 17-35 years in prison in Pennsylvania is no joke, and it's no mistake that most of the shows on TV don't follow men into incarceration. It does make me curious to watch Oz though (I think that was the show on HBO about prison life).

In Sarat's class this last semester we read an article by Martha Nussbaum (part of the law as literature movement) that argued that we have to see cases like a story in order to empathize with the criminals and incorporate mercy into our judgments. I wonder though, to what extent, by viewing events as stories we banish them from the realm of the 'real' and allow ourselves to abdicate our responsibility as actors, opting for the role of viewers instead.