Showing results for "The Privilege" in Professionals & Academics

In his 50s, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a big house in the suburbs, a loving family, and a top job at an ad agency with a six-figure salary. By the time he turned 60, he had lost everything except his Ivy League education and his sense of entitlement. First, he was downsized at work. Next, an affair ended his 20-year marriage. Then, he was diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor, prognosis undetermined. Around the same time, his girlfriend gave birth to a son.

He never saw the moment on the end of his bed thinking about the nature of the world resulting in him losing touch with reality. But it was the moment he broke through the pressures in the west: to be better, work harder, and ultimately chase your dreams. That he realized nothing meant anything. The only purpose in life was to laugh when something was funny, cry when something was sad, eat when you were hungry, and enjoy every fleeting moment. Being a disciplined, calculated, accomplished engineer, this new paradigm didn’t fit in with the persona he had spent a lifetime creating.

It is true that some people are very damaged. It is not true that they are all unsalvageable. The Lifer and the Lawyer raises questions about childhood trauma, religion, race, the purpose of punishment, and a criminal justice system that requires harmless old men to die in prison.