There are many opportunities in life to pause and reflect. There are milestones we may note, though they have meaning only to ourselves. Today, I do so once again.
Earlier in 2025, I delivered my 2,000th professional lecture. That has been a long road that includes almost seventy semester classes taught across three institutions. I have striven to track attendees, but I have taught thousands of students and seminar attendees. I have been privileged to have that opportunity before national audiences in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
For years, I changed my intro biography, used at various seminars. First, striving for brevity but also trying to keep up with an approximate number of lectures and blog posts. Now, I can just say "has delivered thousands of lectures." That has a nice ring.
I passed a notable mark in 2022 and celebrated a decade of writing this blog. You find many blogs on the internet, but few that persist for a decade. Many websites include a blog, and yet the posts are old and dated. I am proud of that persistence.
Today, I celebrate another milestone—my bio can now similarly abbreviate with "has written thousands of blog posts." This one marks 2,000. Not exactly Barry Bonds' 73 home runs or Alex Ovechkin's 895th goal to beat Gretzky. But, nonetheless, it gives me pause. It is a life moment.
The posts are mostly here (1939). But I have written posts for other blogs. My WorkCompCentral posts are preserved in another section, the Off-Site Archives (25). Posts about the challenges and evolution of electronic filing are in eJCC Software (36). Some might count the many other short posts in categories like Regulatory News (85) and Announcements (122). But those are less substantive. I have long elected not to include them in any count.
There have been some memorable posts for me. One of my earliest suggested, in 2015, that we should be worried about Social Security. See Time for that Bake Sale (August 2015). That is likely still my most read. A decade later, that is a growing concern. I have personally worried about the solvency of that for almost 50 years after some reading in the early 1980s. Some of our challenges are not that unpredicted or unpredictable.
Likely my most frequent topic was SARS-CoV-2 and the impacts on our world, community, and practice. I keep a list of those, and the second most frequent - AI. Other recurrent topics here are opioids, obesity, and the Code of Judicial Conduct. I am admittedly somewhat predictable.
I get some feedback about topics. Many have questioned, "What does this have to do with workers' compensation?" Usually, that question is misplaced by someone not looking deeply enough. Other times, these posts are clearly beyond the "workers' compensation" title. Nonetheless, my posts are consistently about the law, judging, medicine, and the connections to the workers' compensation community are clear enough.
It is gratifying to mark the "thousands" milestones. While any of those "thousands" (students/attendees, readers, posts, presentations) might be seen in a positive light, I also see the opposite. With each passing day, we each draw closer to our eventual end. Every achievement, personal and professional, from beginning to end, moves us forward. We will likely each remember a parade of our firsts.
And yet, there will be a commensurate parade also of "lasts." In between, there will be a multitude of this and that, these and those. The day-to-day brings motivation, energy, ennui, and even exhaustion. The world of work can become repetitive, monotonous, and transactional. I have often reflected on how my time in retail, delivery, and food service all became transactional and even blasé.
As I reflect on the brief moment I have spent in Florida workers' compensation, I recall moments of all of that. I reflect on an introspective moment over a decade ago, when I concluded There's No Other Place I Wanna Be (September 2014). That post remains one of my favorites among "thousands."
Over the decades here, I recall many calm days, punctuated with various challenges, stressors, and adventures. I have seen the recurrence of issues, and periodically, there have been legal questions that were downright perplexing in their complexity and analysis.
I am drawn back to astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-1996). In my youth, he was an oft-cited authority opining on deep topics, including the potential for life on other planets. He wrote, lectured, and changed our world. No, I find no comparison with myself. But I have striven to share some thoughts.
Sagan became famous for the phrase "billions and billions," a reference to the stars. But he decried the reference. He corrected people and claimed he never said it: "I said 'billion' many times on the Cosmos television series, which was seen by a great many people. But I never said 'billions and billions.'” He noted:
“I’m told that Sherlock Holmes never said, “Elementary, my dear Watson” (at least in the Arthur Conan Doyle books) Jimmy Cagney never said, “You dirty rat”; and Humphrey Bogart never said, “Play it again, Sam.” But they might as well have, because these apocrypha have firmly insinuated themselves into popular culture.”
Of note, he issued this denial in a book called Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life & Death at the Brink of the Millennium. Intriguing and perhaps poetic. In that, I relate to Sagan. I have had this blog quoted to me over the years. Periodically, those references have been less than accurate reflections of what I actually said here.
I have heard of those who quote this blog in legal proceedings. I have witnessed it in oral arguments. There is self-consciousness and unease when that occurs. This blog is not an authority but perhaps a source at the beginning of one's own analysis. Nonetheless, citation to a blog is dangerous ground. Some years ago, I changed my writer profile to discourage citation as a legal authority:
This blog is not legal authority and should not be cited in pleadings or arguments.
That has perhaps helped. But to help, it would have to be read.
I particularly enjoy hearing from folks about posts. I get the sporadic compliment or mention. That is gracious and even heartwarming. That said, I have always written these posts primarily for my own growth, understanding, and reflection. To the extent the entries aid and inform others, so much the better.
Thousands and Thousands. No Carl Sagan, no Cosmos, and yet today I reflect on some thoughts I have left behind. Perhaps they will evaporate should Google ever diminish or disappear (they say the internet is forever, but that is a long time indeed). Perhaps they will merely fade into the obscurity of an ever-growing volume of content. And yet, maybe someone will run across some of this in a hundred years and find some use in the source, reflection, or perspective.
The end is not mine to predict, but the journey is mine to chart. The years here, the pages here, the reflection back - all worthy of a moment. Thousands and Thousands and Thousands today and onward to the next milestones. I hope that each reader likewise has their own milestones and moments worthy of recollection and reflection. Thanks for reading.
