Legal Commentary

Many of my students and colleagues thought, for some crazy reason, that the holiday season would be a good time to visit family, go somewhere warm, or otherwise relax.  Naturally, I thought it would be a great time to do this instead:

As it turns out, oddly enough, spinal fusion surgery is less fun than a trip to the beach.  Just wanted to clear that up in case anyone is making summer plans and trying to decide between the two. 

As surgeries go, it actually went very well (and for anyone living within several hours of Birmingham, I certainly recommend this surgeon very highly).  I can attest that as slow and painful as the recovery itself may be, it is nevertheless tremendous fun to teach again while standing and walking.  For most of the last three or four years I haven't been able to make it through more than about 10 minutes of teaching on my feet without having to sit down due to the pain; now it appears that I can, and it certainly makes for a more dynamic and enjoyable experience.  Plus, I'm using a cane and taking painkillers, which allows me to emulate my favorite caustic-but-brilliant professional.  We've written a lot here at Prawfs about teaching and dress codes, but we haven't talked about accessories and accoutrements; I can tell you that a cane is a wonderful teaching prop, and I may just have to keep it as an affectation when I no longer need it medically.

In any event, all of this autobiography is by way of explaining why I've been absent from Prawfs for so long and, well, welcoming myself back.  It also seemed appropriate to make some of this disclosure in light of previous posts I've written about living with chronic pain.  Teaching under physical duress is just plain hard, and given how much we write about the mechanics of teaching here at Prawfs it seems appropriate to remember from time to time the burdens that have nothing to do with no-laptop rules or Powerpoint. 

Finally, it seems a fitting way of explaining why I find it so damn difficult to blog again.  Many bloggers have written here and elsewhere about how difficult it is to get back into the daily habit after a long break.  That feeling is reinforced when one has also taken an enforced absence from the daily thrum of life, with its mixture of transience and engagement -- when one is cast out of time, so to speak.  I'll just have to keep working at it until I find the right mixture of -- and I'm just mocking myself here, although other bloggers are free to agree -- self-importance and ephemerality that fuels a good daily blogging habit.