Imagine every time you walk into a room, everyone in the room wants something from you, you can’t please them all, you will make half of them very happy and the other half extremely disappointed. And imagine every time you enter that room, all of these people stand to honor you. Yes, I admit the first quarter of a second of this while being on jury duty it felt good. But after that, I felt it was a way of each side trying to manipulate us. That is something that those who know me well would probably say I go overboard to guard against.

I now think honoring the jury is still a good thing given that jury duty is what it is, something that just pops up out of nowhere and takes you away from your regular life for some undetermined amount of time and asks you to sit still for hours and just listen to something you don’t really care about except to complete your jury duty with some satisfaction. How many of us are good at that or like it? And our court system needs it to function the way it does. I can accept the honor for that. But I closed it off throughout to ignore any manipulative effects. For example, I didn’t look at them when I walked in or out.

But think of it, they stand up when we enter to honor us for coming back into our cage ;) We had to sit in a special place, bounded by 2-3 foot high wooden walls, as you’ve probably seen. We entered and exited the courtroom from a different door than the prosecution and the defense. We couldn’t talk about the case with anyone, including each other. We were honored and restricted at the same time, an odd mix to me. Sometimes I even felt like a pariah, a leper, having to stay so separate. It did take some getting used to. At least others who are restricted in what they can talk about can at least talk to their manager or at least one family member or best friend or their doctor. I guess maybe some people with a top secret clearance or spies could find themselves most closely in this situation. Even then, I’m sure there is at least one other person they can talk to.

But yes, we did hold a position of responsibility. We did have the duty to make a decision – a very important decision – for the parties involved. I think we all got that. And why should they do anything less than honor us if they were serious about their case.

After closing arguments when we would walk out of the courtroom for the last time before coming back to deliver the verdict, it seemed to be a race to see whose team could stand up first and tallest. There was the early jostling of chairs. But the judge had a few more things to tell us so some people may have already been standing by this time – I didn’t look. I was just trying to listen without laughing at this rather critical moment.