When The Heavens Align

I recently received an analysis of my astrological birth chart. It was one of those freebies that on-line Astrologists will provide in order to entice you into getting hooked on seeking their future retained guidance on a regular basis. I get it, they are giving you a taste for free. Like crack.

Once I get Hollywood on the hook, maybe I’ll imbibe. I have an addictive personality.

And the Astrologist, Brad Spencer, was spot on. https://www.moonreading.com/

I’m a true Scorpio in every sense of the word. It has gotten me much further than I expected in life. Gotten me into a little trouble along the way as well. I own it. Another three weeks and I’ll be ascending.

11 Mind-blowing Traits Of A True Scorpio (Male & Female)

It’s been a lifelong battle overcoming some of the negative traits.

Of course, negative is in the eyes of the beholder.

The analysis was interesting. Lot’s of “that’s cool” insights.

However, one line from the numerous screen pages of analysis stood out.

“Gifted with an impressive way with words, you are able to excel in any area of life which relies on the power of language.”

I was never really physically gifted, but I’ve got the blarney.

When I was a young boy, I was told by a best friend’s mother listening to my latest litany of extemporaneous excuses, after she caught me and her son red-handed doing yet another bad thing, that I had “slippery lips.”

That best friend appears in Finding Jimmy Moran.

Spaghetti used to tell us, “You rather be hung for stealing a horse than a pig.”

I would have made an excellent grifter.

My chosen profession was the next best thing.

I remember coming across a legal article during my studies in Fordham Law School, which mentioned a case where a legal brief had been written like a play. I thought that was fascinating.

Anyway, for the first 25 years of my professional life, I bridled under the restrictions imposed over the creative bent to my legal writing by the powers that be. I found legal writing boring.

Really fucking boring.

However, over the past 15 years, my latest legal incarnation has allowed me to shed some of the shackles.

Sometimes I’ve pushed the boundaries, like the time a brief I had written referred to the opposition’s argument as attempting to lead the judge into a dark room and trying to hand him an elephant’s phallus and convince him it was an anaconda. That drew a warning from the Court.

My most quoted line in my legal anthology may have been the blending of my creative writing, my understanding of interpersonal relationships and the law: “All business is personal. When those personal relationships evolve into romantic entanglements, any corresponding business relationship usually follows the same trajectory so that when one crashes they all burn. That is what happened here.”

You see, I figure that Judges are forced to read reams of boring legal arguments day-in and day-out for the many years that they sit on the bench. I want to provide them with something that makes my legal point but leaves them chuckling, or at least smiling. Spoonful of sugar with that medicine.

Luckily, my legal better half (and he really is a much better lawyer than I am), Robert Meloni (yes, the mafia lawyer in TWA), still reins me in when I go too far.

“We can’t say that! Not that way.”

“Why not?”

Since he is the one that usually must make the oral argument to the Court, I usually defer to his sensibilities. But he’s pretty game. He’s got a lot of Vinny Gambini in him.

Anyway, when I expanded my repertoire to actual fiction in my novels, I decided that I was going to write in a way that I felt the most comfortable. I call it conversational literature.

I write like I speak.

So my stories have the feel of me sitting you down one late night in a bar, when you are a little buzzed, and recounting some outrageous event that I swear just occurred. I try to tell it with all of the passion I can muster. I try to make you laugh and cry. Both are cathartic.

And the lawyer in me tries to make you believe it is true. Because all good stories are wrapped around a kernel of truth.

So, you see, there has to be something to Astrology. Like my horoscopes, it gives me something to work with.

Speaking of work, my day awaits.

Thank the heavens that it is Tuesday.

I better get cuddling that kitty.

And my usual crew await their snacks and bon mots on my rounds.

But since Lisa’s still away, I may take a few spare minutes with another coffee, some grounding and star gazing.

You fine, five readers have that second or third cuppa.

And whatever you do, make today a great one.