Introducing Astraea Law
Looking back, the seed for Astraea Law was probably planted one hot summer morning in the early 1970s as I sat at the kitchen table on Roland Drive in a pair of shorts, eating breakfast with my parents, eager to run outside and play with my best friend, Greg. He and I were the same age. Our fathers took turns mowing a path through the field that connected our backyards, allowing us freedom to roam our little world unaccompanied by adult supervision, even though we had not yet entered kindergarten. It was on this morning, sunshine bright against yellow linoleum, milk dripping from my half-raised spoon, that I first understood the consequences of being labeled “girl.” Greg was “boy,” and that meant even though Greg and I looked identical in our shorts, he was allowed to walk through our world in a way I was not.
The lesson I learned that summer morning has been repeated so many times I could not possibly recount them. All I know is that half a century later when one of my kids posited to me the riddle about the emergency room surgeon who exclaimed, “I cannot operate on this child, he’s my son,” I was genuinely unable to answer the question of who the surgeon could possibly be, since the boy’s father had died in the same car crash that brought the child to the hospital. Some part of me believed “girls can’t,” and that belief unknowingly limited my adult perception of who can.
The messages conveyed in that lesson have become the fractured bedrock of our society. They define our culture and shape laws that dictate our lives. Our foremothers railed against them and were moderately successful, but repairing a crumbling structure built on an unsound foundation is ultimately as futile as cleaning white sheets with muddy water.
We must rebuild from mother earth up. We must create new systems to support the growth of what is, of course, possible—a healthy planet with enough food and fresh water to nourish every creature, where love governs rather than fear, where children learn lessons that teach them to believe surgeons can also be mothers.
The goddess Astraea symbolizes hope for a just and equitable society. Astraea Law embraces her spirit, helping clients make business and legal decisions to build a future grounded in fairness, integrity, and love.
I look forward to working with you.
In solidarity,
Chris