Defending Jacob

by William Landay

At some point as adults we cease to be our parents’ children and we become our children’s parents instead.

admit—no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed—

We humans are swayed more by stories than by abstract concepts like “burden of proof” or “presumed innocent.” We are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals, and have been since we began drawing on cave walls.

Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion—you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.

The towering lie of the criminal justice system—that we can reliably determine the truth, that we can know “beyond a reasonable doubt” who is guilty and who is not—is built on this

whopper of an admission: after a thousand years or so of refining the process, judges and lawyers are no more able to say what is true than a dozen knuckleheads selected at random off the street.

This is the best thing about men’s friendships: most any awkwardness can be ignored by mutual agreement and, true connection being unimaginable, you can get on with the easier business of parallel living.

For all we have learned, the fact remains that we do not understand in any meaningful way why people do what they do, and likely never will.”

Damage hardens us all. It will harden you too, when it finds you—and it will find you.