eas·y:    1. Capable of being accomplished or acquired with ease: posing no difficulty: an easy victory; an easy problem.    2. Requiring or exhibiting little effort or endeavor: took the easy way out of her problems; wasn't satisfied with easy answers.    3. Free from worry, anxiety, trouble, or pain: My mind was easy, knowing that I had done my best.

All right. I, along with frustrated consumers and E&O claims people everywhere, want to know who decided that if you are to be considered a true professional, definition No. 2 is to be exalted. These pundits proclaim that a real agent would never "take the easy way out" or be "satisfied with easy answers." Evidently real agents scorn the easy, preferring to endlessly ponder the mysteries of obscure clauses, labor over contract interpretation, worship court cases and debate the subtle inferences of manuscript endorsements.

It is not these latter practices I decry, but the attitude that to do less than immerse oneself in such detail is to be a slacker. Ironically, this very preference for the obscure instead of the obvious may lead to incidents proving you less competent than your fellow traveler who happily embraces the Eagles' bold assertion to "take it easy."

Consider low-hanging fruit. How often do you hear that term used disparagingly by those who disdain what is evidently considered beneath the dignity of the truly ambitious or educated?

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