I’m grateful to be writing this from Bali. I’m taking a brief and beautiful break from one of my aviation cases in Indonesia. 

There is something Zen about the vibe here, which made me think it was a fitting time to post Chapter One of my Zen Lawyer column from the Tacoma Pierce County Bar News. 

I previously posted Chapter Ten on meditation.

Thanks for reading.

Zen Stories

“It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.”

Zen is a famously elusive concept. The word Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character chan, which derives from dhyana,a Sanskrit word for Buddhist meditation.

Buddha believed we suffer because of unsatisfied desires and resistance to the natural law of impermanence. Zen is an antidote of sorts. Because Zen defies precise description, Zen teachers use stories and riddles to illustrate the meaning.

One of my favorite Zen stories is known by different titles, including “Luck” and “Maybe.” My affection for the story may be due to the fact I’ve always felt lucky.

Luck Maybe

A farmer’s horse ran away. Upon hearing the news of the famer’s loss, his neighbors came to visit.

“Such bad luck,” the neighbors said.

“Maybe,” the farmer said.

The next day, the horse returned, bringing with it two wild horses.

“Such good luck,” the neighbors said.

“Maybe,” the farmer said.

The next day, the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses, was thrown and broke his leg.

“Such bad luck,” the neighbors said.

“Maybe,” the farmer said.

The next day, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. They did not take the farmer’s son because his leg was broken.

“Such good luck,” the neighbors said.

“Maybe,” the farmer said.

And so on.

Courtroom Luck

Catholic Buddhist Jack Kerouac put it this way in his novel, On the Road, “Nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old.”

During a recent trial, I watched a lawyer lose a motion to exclude a witness and become angry. When the witness took the stand, the lawyer was still angry. As the sympathetic witness testified, the lawyer grew angrier. The lawyer was still fighting the motion he lost, he saw the witness as a bad break, he was lost in his anger. As a result, he missed an opportunity to perhaps gain something from the witness.

I watched this un-Zen example play out with a sort of awe because the angry lawyer managed to violate three precepts of Zen in one cross-examination: 1) it’s not personal, 2) things are not always what they seem, and 3) be present in the moment.

Nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody.

Finding Zen

Zen can be found everywhere, in stories, in songs, in the courtroom, and in any moment you choose. As Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, said, “The only Zen you find on mountaintops is the Zen you bring there.”

You can even find Zen inThe Godfather, which I quoted at the beginning of this chapter.

It’s not personal.

Zen Lawyer

To be a Zen lawyer, next time you take something personally, or you imagine you know what something means in this short and uncertain life, or you cannot let go of something, take a deep breath.

Then count to Zen.

Welcome to this special coronavirus quarantine edition of my blog.

While this post lacks my usual book and movie recommendations, there are some life lessons with levity.

Decades ago, Kurt Vonnegut said, “How should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot.”

Top Ten Tips for Working at Home

Many of us are working at home now. I got a head start.

In February, I returned from visiting clients in Jakarta, via Tokyo, and went into a 14-day quarantine. People were becoming concerned about this coronavirus thing. 

Just as I was ready to return to the office and reconnect with colleagues, everything went online so we could work remotely. 

Shortly thereafter, Governor Inslee began issuing public health directives. “Non-essential” people were quarantined. Lawyers, apparently, are non-essential. 

Suddenly toilet paper was hoarded. Memes flooded Facebook. The end times seemed near.

Here is some good news though. Working remotely works. At our firm, we’re serving clients, accepting clients, and doing our jobs. Along isolation road, however, we learned some lessons. 

There are challenges to working at home. For example, there is no IT department at my house. There is a distracting nine-and-a-half-year-old. Nonetheless, I’ve found ways to carry on.

Here are my top ten tips: 

10) Create a home workspace. 

This should not be your bed. 

9) Start your day with a checklist.

Checklists have a double benefit. One, lists help you focus. Two, every time you check something off your list you earn a surge of dopamine. You can get the same rush from exercising, but checklists don’t make you sweat. 

8) Maintain contact with people. 

According to research, loneliness is one of the top challenges of working at home. Still, now is not the time to organize a rockin’ block party. Instead, try group chats, make phone calls, use FaceTime, discover Zoom. Please wear pants during any sort of video conferencing. 

7) Communicate with colleagues. 

Organizations have a collective knowledge that naturally spreads like, well, a virus. Whether it’s a hallway dialogue, a lunch break, or simply hanging out and sharing war stories, we are constantly exchanging information. When everyone is working remotely, we lose this. Call your colleagues. Ask about the weirdest thing that happened that day. Be grateful for the stories. I’m adding a chapter to my memoir. 

6) Stick to a schedule.

Psychologists consistently recommend a regular schedule as crucial for productivity and mental health. Schedules make us more efficient, reduce stress, and instill good habits. Further, schedules give us the illusion of control, which is particularly comforting during apocalyptic times. Your schedule should include time for things like helping your children with homework, lunch, and exercise. Ironically, many of us find ourselves working longer hours at home because there is no end time. Your schedule should also include happy hour. 

5) Cut down on news.  

You save time. You avoid toxicity. You tune out annoyances. You’re happier. Studies show news triggers your limbic system in noxious ways, stressing your body and dimming your mind. You will hear enough about disease, death, and doom without clicking coronavirus links eleven times a day.

4) Listen to music.

Lawyers should tell their clients this more often. Music, as Kurt Vonnegut noted, is the greatest of the arts. Science confirms what we already know. Music reduces stress, inspires creativity, lifts our spirits, and even supports our immune system. Music is a miracle drug. If you play an instrument, break it out. I did. I’m practicing the three chords I know and may even learn a fourth. 

3) Hydrate and meditate.

This is one of my mantras. Among other essential functions, water flushes out toxins and strengthens your immune system. You function better. Your skin looks better. You feel better. What water does for your body, meditation does for your mind. We need calm heads for The End of the World as We Know It. 

2) Read. 

I do not mean Facebook memes like the one of Hannibal Lector with the caption, “If we run out of food, we still have each other.” I mean books. Personally, I’m re-reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself, ‘I have to go to work as a human being. What do I have to complain of if I’m going to do what I was born for?’”

1)  Don’t wear pajamas.

Laurence Olivier said you can play any part with the right costume. Clothes affect how others perceive you and, more importantly, how you perceive yourself. So my number one tip is this: do not wear pajamas during work hours. Don’t do it. Thank you. 

Oh, and more thing that was pointed out to me by Peter Farrelly: muumuus are the same as pajamas.

I’m an optimist and I’m confident the Republic will survive. Remember, the Renaissance followed the Bubonic Plague.  

Stay safe. Stay sane. 

Tip Eleven

As we know from the rockumentary movie Spinal Tap, eleven is somewhere beyond ten. “This one goes to eleven.”

So here is my eleventh tip: crisis equals opportunity.

President John F. Kennedy, and politicians who followed his lead and borrowed his tropes, have been criticized for saying, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” Apparently, this is not technically correct.

While Kennedy may have been off on his linguistics, he was spot on about life.

Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed Independence Day. For the first time in a decade, I skipped the bands and the salmon bakes and the parades and escaped to our family beach place. It was awesome. Sloane loved hanging out with her cousins, taking boat rides, and playing on the beach.

Seaside Reading

There is something meditative about the sea. As John F. Kennedy said, “We are tied to the ocean. When we return to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are returning whence we came.”

The meditative aspect, however, was lessened slightly by the incessant fireworks, but no matter. It was cool.

The Lindquists ate fresh crab, drank cold beer, and generally relaxed. I caught up on my reading. Of late I’ve been focused on books about lawyers, trials, and our justice system.

Personal Injury Attorney

I’ve always loved being a trial lawyer, whether prosecuting a criminal case or a civil case. Justice, accountability, helping clients. The trifecta remains the same.

Please contact me if I can help with anything. Tell your friends, too, thanks.

Lion Air Update

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to work on the case of Lion Air JT 610, the first of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes. I’ve spent much of 2019 in Indonesia. Recently I returned from Chicago where our federal lawsuit against Boeing is proceeding. You can read more about it in previous blog entries and on my attorney website. You can also learn more about it in a 60 Minutes Australia interview I did.

Life keeps growing more interesting. My memoir material keeps stacking up. Follow my Instagram for visual updates, including Independence Day photos and videos.

Book and Movie Recommendations

If you are looking for some smart summer reading, pick up Star Spangled Scandal: Sex, Murder, and the Trial that Changed America by Chris DeRose. I also recommend White by Bret Easton Ellis and, especially for Seattleites, Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple, which is just as funny on a second and third reading. Finally, Garth Stein‘s novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, is out as a movie this summer.

Zen Lawyer, the book version, is coming together whenever I have time. Chapter One from my Bar News column is posted on my Medium page.

Enjoy summer. Appreciate your independence. Thanks for reading.

Happy new year! “Tomorrow is the first page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” Brad Paisley, a country music star, wrote this. My musical taste generally runs a different direction, but I like this line.

I wrapped up my “Zen Lawyer” column for Pierce County Lawyer this year. After a long career of published novels, articles, essays, and book reviews, I received the most face-to-face feedback from this column, which I appreciated. I’ve sent the stories to my agent for a possible book. Meanwhile, here is a seasonal riff on friendship, Chapter 12.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Facebook and Facebook. I hope to connect with you somewhere this year, maybe even in person.

My Instagram account just went public.

Zen Lawyer, chapter 10, features a crash course on one-minute meditation. Try it.

I continue to write book reviews for the Seattle Times, including, most recently, “Breem Gives Me Hiccups & Other Stories” by Jesse Eisenberg, star of “The Social Network.”

In the never ending endeavor of making our community safer, I finished a murder trial this month, convicting a defendant who had a wife, a finance, and a girlfriend. He divorced the wife and shot the fiancee so he could be with his girlfriend. You can read about it on my Facebook page.