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An Ode to My Sanity


Shakespeare

Dear Sanity,

I'm sorry things had to end this way. It's not you; it's me. I've fallen madly in love with a dark seductress. She tempts me with her eloquent ratios, rousing obiters and inspiring Kirbys. She promises me wealth, prominence and prestige. She locks me in her fangs of intoxicating black ink, and rips my soul out with the dagger of precedents.

No matter how much I get, her Grundnorm leaves me wanting more and more. The deeper I go, the more I become bound in her network of intricacies. She gives me delusions of grandeur, illusions of accomplishment; but she remains forever unfathomable. As deep as the black ink ocean in which she was created.

Law has many lovers. And while we all walk around acting like we know her, the fact of the matter is that we are all lost – fumbling around in the dark, searching for the torchlight of clarity. We try and understand her – we create rules and we devise tests to find her. But she remains forever elusive.

Oh Sanity, I long for your reassuring embrace. We had so many good times together. We would go for long walks along the beach of fancy. We would paddle in the waves of free time, and we occasionally found the jewels of meaning. My desk was clear; my heart was pure; my consciousness harmonious.

I agree – your departure was entirely my doing. It started with my Foundations of Law textbook. It was an intrusion, I agree. You felt uneasy with it around the house. You warned me it was just the beginning – soon, my bookshelf of Wilde, Shakespeare and Homer would be overtaken by books as fat as a rhino.

Then came the Constitutional Law book. You were right to suspect the worst. Encased in its 1400-odd pages was the undoing of our relationship. Whatever little connection we still had was undone when I had to get my head around the Torrens title system. It was unfortunate, but it was inevitable.

So I am writing you this ode, my dearest Sanity. I miss what we had together. Those times were awesome. I want them back. But until then, I remain forever ensnared within the clutches of Law. I long to escape, but her mind-numbing mental torture is just too sweet.

–Me

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