Hearty soup weather

The lawyer said:

“In this area manual labour is king. People come up to me in the street, the cafe, and say, ‘But your honour just a little bit of advice, a pointer, an opinion.’ “

And I say, again taken aback,

‘But why don’t we arrange to meet; come to my office.’

But they say,

‘It’s just for some help, a word, your sense of where things might go.’

As if words, pointers or advice could ever equal the heft and value of masonry or steel; as if a professional opinion could outrun the hard won fruits of the soil.