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Ellen Aspinwall (Templar)
THE ODD COUPLE
It is common knowledge in DC that the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the now-late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were close personal friends. They shared a love of opera, went souvenir shopping together when they traveled, and rode an elephant in India with Scalia up front. Their families spent New Year's Eve together, and when Chief Justice Roberts announced the death of Ginsburg's husband, Marty, Scalia wept on the bench. When Scalia died in 2016, Ginsburg said, "we were best buddies."
They never spoke politics or ideology to one another because as one seasoned observer said, "there would be no point." Scalia himself would say, "if you can't disagree ardently with your colleagues about some issues of law and yet personally still be friends, get another job. for Pete's sake."
On her part, Ginsburg said of Scalia, "as annoyed as you might be about his zinging dissent, he's so utterly charming, so amusing, so sometimes outrageous, you can't help but say, "I'm glad he is my friend." She said she sometimes had to pinch herself to not laugh when he would say something audacious in the courtroom.
In an era when we are being purposefully divided over political and social differences, and friendships and families are being ripped apart in the process, Scalia and Ginsburg were The Odd Couple. They held the deepest respect for each other and kept their disagreements intellectual, not transactional. (Little known fact, it was Scalia that begged Obama to appoint Ellen Kagan to the Court. He wanted her there so he would have someone to argue with in an intelligent manner.)
When he learned of Ginsburg's passing, Scalia's son, Christopher, shared the following story from Judge Jeffrey Sutton about an encounter late in his father's life.
"During one of my last visit with Justice Scalia, I saw striking evidence of the Scalia-Ginsburg relationship. As I got up to leave his chambers, he pointed to two dozen roses on his table and noted that he needed to take them down to 'Ruth' for her birthday.
"Wow," I said, "I doubt I have given a total of twenty-four roses to my wife in almost thirty years of marriage." "You ought to try it sometime," Scalia retorted.
Unwilling to let him have the last word, I pushed back: "So what good have all those roses done for you? Name one five-four case of any significance when you have got Justice Ginsburg's vote."
Scalia replied, "some things are more important than votes."
This is what we have lost: two earnest and caring people who could place all differences aside for the sake of friendship and an abiding love for each other.
I say to everyone, be a Nino; be a Ruth. Remember what is good in every person you know even when you have to work a little harder to find it or need to let go of anger or hard feelings. God did not put us here in pre-formed harmony, He put us here with differences so we could find it on our own.
Finally, if you are being unduly influenced by anyone who through their speech and actions encourages you to hate or disregard others because they may be or believe something different from you, tune them out and turn them off. They simply do not have your best interest at heart, and are in the business of keeping you riled up for the sake of their own self-interest and profit.
Again, be a Ruth; be a Nino. Be kind to one another. Choose love over votes. It truly is 'bigger than anything in its way," especially politics.
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