President's Page, 1117 ALBJ, 78 The Alabama Lawyer 412 (2017)
| Author | Augusta S. Dowd |
Augusta S. Dowd
barpresident@alabar.org, (205) 323-1888
The Present Is Your Gift
During Saturday morning's Grand Convocation at the Annual Meeting in July, I shared with those of you in attendance that my brother-in-law, Douglas, had been involved in a boating incident the previous afternoon. Douglas, a regular swimmer, had been exercising in the waters in front of the Grand Hotel when a boat came toward him at a rapid pace. He had the presence of mind to dive down to avoid a direct hit, but unfortunately, the boat's propeller caught the back lower part of his foot, causing significant injury. To put it mildly, my priorities were instantly realigned that Friday afternoon. In a split second, my focus moved away from fine-tuning my incoming president's address, turning instead t o making sure Douglas got the care and support he needed. One moment in time can change everything.
This unfortunate incident has remained at the forefront of my thoughts in the time that has passed since I became president. As the demands of a busy law practice and the bar presidency seemingly conspire to dominate my life, I am constantly working to embrace Coach Saban's leadership mantra: "Be where your feet are."Life is precious, and time well spent with those we love is a blessing we often fail to appreciate. In a fleeting second, a boat propeller, a heart attack, a car accident or any one of a thousand other calamities can rip that blessing from us. Of course, the seemingly more innocent-yet equally persistent-pulls on our time and attention of work and other commitments can, over time, erode our closest relationships with equally damaging results.
All of us have experienced a near catastrophe or worse. It's part of the fragile fabric of our lives. Afterwards, we talk about how things will be different for us going forward. We make big plans to realign our schedules and focus on spending our time with those cherished individuals and on those projects that are the most fulfilling to us. That usually works for a while, and then-despite our good intentions-the competing priorities of daily life get in the way. Instead of things being different, we eventually go back to how they were before "The Event." The timing of Douglas's injury, colliding as it did with my installation as the state bar president with its accompanying...
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