Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Gifts that Go on Costing

from A Trial by Jury, by D. Graham Burnett, page 181

[Jury duty] drew on all of me, and all of others, and we were bound by this. Life hands one few such episodes, and they are, in a way, gifts that go on costing.

The author of this memoir is an intellectual sucked out of the airy world of academe and into the role of jury foreman at a murder trial. His experience changes his life and rearranges his views on truth and justice.

Caught between remembering his service as burden or gift, Burnett splits the difference: not a "gift that goes on giving," but one that goes on "costing," that is, taxing him even after the verdict is reached.

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