The statement went out Tuesday morning through Walker legal's press channel.
By Tuesday afternoon it was everywhere.
He did not read the reactions immediately.
He had learned this early — not in this building, but years before, in a different context entirely.
The reactions were not the reality.
They were the noise around it.
Reading noise before you had done anything with the reality was just: absorbing other people's responses to a thing that was yours.
Which was not useful.
Which was, in fact, the opposite of useful.
He went to his class instead.
He had been doing the accelerated program remotely — the coursework he had started two years ago and had been quietly continuing through all of this because stopping it would mean losing the year.
He sat in the guest suite with his laptop.
He attended the online lecture.
He took notes.
Like a person whose life was not currently being nationally reviewed.
At noon Lena called.
He answered.
