{"id":4366,"date":"2003-10-11T19:19:12","date_gmt":"2003-10-11T23:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2003\/10\/11\/exitedesq-going-dormant-gonna"},"modified":"2011-08-05T15:00:37","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T19:00:37","slug":"exitedesq-going-dormant-gonna-miss-ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/10\/11\/exitedesq-going-dormant-gonna-miss-ya\/","title":{"rendered":"exitedEsq: going dormant (gonna miss ya)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"napper turn, turn, turn . . . .<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

This is the last posting for my ethicalEsq<\/em> web journal.\u00a0\u00a0 So, I\u2019m going to get sentimental and reflective.<\/p>\n

[NOTE<\/em>: we couldn’t stay away from weblogging and returned<\/a> on December 13, 2003; click on our About page to read more about our convoluted history — which continued until March 1, 2009, when we stopped production and “archivized” f\/k\/a<\/em>]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe it was only 19 weeks ago, when I made my first<\/a> news post, “P\/I Lawyers v. Common Good” and went public with ethicalEsq<\/em>. (I mean, Denise is still<\/a> pregnant with the same Baby!)\u00a0 Nevertheless, it\u2019s time to follow my own advice<\/a> to other lawyers:<\/p>\n

Don’t\u00a0take on a client or a project\u00a0if your services won’t be “diligent<\/span> (attentive, prompt) and competent<\/span> (thorough, knowledgeable, well-prepared).”<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Ethics Nanny business,\u00a0you know it’s time to stop tilting at windmills and hang up your lance,\u00a0when you can’t find the energy to write with relish<\/em> about this <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span>story (“State [Ethics] attorney fined for writing on job”). For the past two months, it’s been rather<\/span> difficult to keep a sharp eye or brain\u00a0 focused on developments in the world of legal ethics.\u00a0\u00a0 My body keeps wanting naps, and my brain-ego keeps wanting to chase down just one more source and link.\u00a0 It seems that the need\u00a0to\u00a0feel\u00a0productive is\u00a0a curse\u00a0for Type A’s who happen to contract Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS<\/a>), and finding the right pace<\/a> can be nearly impossible — at least for me, since becoming addicted to editing my weblog.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Yes, Lauren Hillenbrand was able to write Seabiscuit<\/em>, despite having CFS, and her personal story<\/a> is inspiring, but:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[H]er success came at a price. \u201cThe day after I turned in my manuscript, my health collapsed,\u201d says Hillenbrand. \u201cYou want so much to defy this illness and live on your own terms. I hoped I could get away with it, but I couldn\u2019t.\u201d Debilitating symptoms of chronic fatigue, and the devastating vertigo that accompanied them, had returned <\/em>with a vengeance.<\/em> (from “Betting on Seabisquit,”<\/em> Smithsonian<\/em> Magazine, by Larry Katzenstein, Dec. ’02)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not to make excuses for myself, but writing a bestseller like Seabiscuit<\/em> is just one<\/em> discrete project (although a big one).\u00a0 On the other hand, riding ethical herd on the legal profession is an endless, thankless, almost infinite, and — let’s be honest — rather futile job.\u00a0 Don Corleone could\u00a0certainly do the job a lot better than Don Quixote, but he’d need a very big gang of enforcers. <\/span><\/p>\n