I heard a brilliant story on ABC Radio this week, about one of Australia’s seven High Court Judges, Justice Michael Kirby.
Justice Kirby has served on the High Court bench since 1996, on the NSW Court of Appeals for 12 years before that, and has held positions as President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands, as UN Special Representative in Cambodia and as President of the International Commission of Jurists: 34 years of public service. He’s possibly the most outspoken of our High Court Judges, disagreeing with his colleagues about judgements in 38% of cases. Some of the many issues about which he’s taken a stand include reproductive cloning, detention laws, and the jurisdiction of military tribunals. He’s also gay and has personal experience of discrimination. So I think it’s safe to say he’s seen more than his share of human experiences.
And at Grififth University this past week, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and gave one of his last speeches before he retires in February 2009, to graduating business and law students. What he had to say was, to me, profound. More so, given his vast experience in the legal system, one of the most stressful occupations on the planet. Justice Kirby talked about his concern for the mental health of our legal professionals: depression in the legal profession is four times higher than in the general population, and even law students are under such pressure that more than 40% seek medical assistance for stress and depression.
The answer, said Justice Kirby, is love. "Love transcends even scholarship, cleverness and university degrees. It is greater than pride and wealth. It endures when worldly vanities fade," he said.
Self-love and self-care would maintain mental and emotional health, and giving volunteer service to extend loving compassion, justice and the growth of acceptance in the community. He advised students to consider doing volunteer work as part of maintaining a balanced life, and to demand their employers give them the time to do it. He also said the profession was beginning to understand that employers giving their staff free meals after midnight, childcare subsidies and a sofa bed in the office had more to do with billable hours than supporting staff, he said.
Now it’s pretty scary that our legal professionals are so stressed and exhausted that 11% of them contemplate suicide every month, and 15% meet the criteria for alcoholism. In my opinion, sleep is the solution to depression, (and of course, EFT) based on the work of Ivan Tyrrell and Joe Griffith. Yes, do the personal changing you need to do to stand powerfully as yourself in the face of pressure, stay connected to your loved ones and the community – that will all help you get where you need to be. And incidentally it will also help you sleep better. If you’re depressed, do what you can to get good solid sleep, starting tonight. That sounds like self-love to me 
If you’d like to read an edited transcript of Justice Kirby’s speech, get it here, and the unedited audio is here. Actually you should go and get the full transcript – this post doesn’t do Justice Kirby’s wisdom justice. Go on…. click.
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