Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer.
Practicing law can harden you against life’s vicissitudes. Through the vicarious exposure to the lives of others, a lawyer’s survival depends on developing a carapace to insulate us against others’ misfortune. After a while, if we find we are suited to legal practice, we may develop an appetite for dealing with life’s difficult issues. Dealing with death is one of these difficult issues which has both hardened me and given me an appetite for dealing with the difficulties death presents.
When our clients share their frailty or death with us, we want to ‘fix’ the fall out. We see the consequences of human behaviour and we begin to believe, that with foresight and planning, problems can be avoided. Perhaps this is a delusional belief. Perhaps instead life is not to be ‘fixed’ and that difficulties are integral to life’s journey. But lawyers have the benefit of having shared many experiences of things going wrong. Through hindsight we can be seduced into thinking that there is a ‘right’ way to do things, and that lawyers know what that ‘right’ way is. Having a ‘cark file’ is one of those tools which uses the experiences of others, to avoid future difficulties.Hele
The ‘cark file’ is one tool which lawyers use to forestall disaster. The cark file is a practical approach to getting your affairs in order. In one place, you gather the information which will guide your friends and family, when you are no longer able to tell them your wishes. The cark file contains all the information your family or friends need. The cark file helps both before and after death. Under what circumstances would you wish your life to cease? What do you want to happen to your body, and your possessions when you ‘cark it’? What would it take for you to ‘have the conversation’ with your family and friends? Get ready for the conversation, write up your Will, nominate an enduring attorney as your ‘responsible person’ to make decisions when you are unable to do so and save your loved ones some trouble.t of coping with.
Helen practices law in Beechworth and Yackandandah.