A few years back, I learned something startling about myself: for reasons then unclear, I noticed that I tended to produce my most well-reasoned legal writing after spending a bit of time in some narrow gallery space, absorbed in the acrylic geometry of an oversized painting or two. A bit later, a lawyer friend confided that his greatest moments of rational clarity come while standing in the middle of a packed music venue, bass reverberating through his ribcage. There was also the roommate who claimed her best factum was the product of a late night spent watching short films.
You’ve heard, I’m sure, that the left and right hemispheres of the human brain conduct different types of acts and thinking. The left-side, detail-oriented brain governs the logical, sequential, rational and objective. The right-side brain is the sphere of the creative, the subjective, the intuitive — the abstract bigger picture. Our profession, though, is for the most part a left-brained one; it trains our minds to excel at quick, methodical and disciplined problem-solving. In the process, our right-side brains and their spurts of spontaneous imaginative thinking are often left standing by the curb.
And that’s a pity — if not a problem — because the concoction and execution of any brilliant idea, no matter how logical, requires “whole brain” thinking. That right-side brain is important. Its tendencies towards the abstract, the random and the emotive are precisely what the legal left brain needs to make its most tightly reasoned and logical judgments. What’s more, the right brain is the source of some odd golden moments — like the time you thought up that rebuttal while blankly staring at a jar of almond biscotti, or when, at the sight of all your paperclips spilled across your desk, you suddenly untangled the conflicting evidence. But best of all, it turns out that the right brain is most effectively coaxed into its wacky, imaginative brilliance by the sensory and visual bursts of stimulation that come with enjoying a work of art or an act of culture.
As a former student of literature and cultural studies, and a dabbler in painting and photography, I’ve been a natural test-case for the culture-feeds-the-right-brain balance theory. My own right-brain appetites have always been about the visual, and I suspect they will continue to send me walking about town with my camera, seeking out both organized and random acts of culture.
Documenting and sharing these finds would be a further source of right-brain pleasure, so I will do that, bi-weekly, right here in Leisure Aid. The column will at times be a place for film and theatre reviews; at others, notes on art gallery happenings and good music. It will also sometimes feature interviews with lawyers who are themselves sideline right-brain activists. Leisure Aid will operate on the premise that attending the new 3D museum exhibit is a non-negotiable pre-requisite to producing a stellar factum by your Sunday deadline, and will always be a place dedicated to, naturally, your right-side brain.
Maria is a Toronto articling student. Her column, Leisure Aid, will appear every other Friday here at lawandstyle.ca.
Image by Jan