
I told her how over a month ago I began a piece in response to the ruling of the appeal court, which dismissed our 5 week trial verdict due to a technicality of omission, by the judge to the jury. I explained how I'd been writing about this piece, generally ranting about "truth," "irresponsible doubt" and so on.
I explained how I was creating a silky cloth representing the justice system, rising upwards at one end, seemingly by some power of it's own. That it was actually an optical illusion. The million dollar question I said was, what do I place on the very top of the risen portion of this silk cloth? What would best represent the issue(s) relating to how doubt is being raised in the court system? What's a good metaphor/image for doubt?
She was fascinated with the riddle and we both began kicking around ideas, like a pile of question marks, a broken gavel, the tree of Good and Evil with apples on it, and so on.

Secondly, I will be making the seat he's sitting on, a spool of rope. There are many symbols for rope. It might be a symbol of how we are tied to something or someone. It can refer to a marriage and the tug of war that can happen there. There is also the negative aspects of a relationship, feelings of bondage and constriction, taking place emotionally or in the communication, or possibly even physically. How about "feeling tied down?" Most of us have heard that phrase. There is also the idea of being connected to history, systems of old, ideas of the past that may or may not work now.
In my case the rope not only connects with our case where our daughter was hog-tied, it is also something that speaks to the actual court trial process. Are we "tied" to a system that "might" find the truth almost in spite of itself? For what I saw from the defense (and this is not a knock on our defense) it is the culture of the court. Namely a culture of presenting ideas and arguments, not just to make sure of a just trial, but to actually derail the trial itself. Lies, innuendos, mockery etc. were the order of the day. We are tied to a culture of illusions. We are tied to a system where we have to constantly question our trust of the "good will" of the defense. We all (judge, jury, crown, observers in the gallery) have to constantly consider, are their arguments and ideas based on validity? This development is actually immoral and unethical, right in our own courtrooms. It's another agenda we have to deal with aside from the actual case's we are involved with and trying to solve in truthfulness.
So, I need a rope and it will be wound around my representative of humanities seat and come out curled (knotted?) around his ankle, then continue down the slope of the rising sheet of doubt he's perched upon.
I will now be calling on my good friend, thanking for her thoughts and revealing my decisions. I'm very interested in her response.