Day 365: Almost-Final Thoughts

Photo by Dario Glionna on Unsplash

“What are you doing?” Gary asked.

“Writing on Substack, then I need to write a blog post,” I said.

“This is it, right? It’s day 365.”

I hadn’t even realized that until he said it. Ever since Gary pointed out, almost a year ago, that 2024 is a Leap Year, I’ve promised to do a bonus 366th post in this series. I’m looking forward to reflecting on what I’ve learned and tried to offer from this project.

For today, I’ll just offer the following parable. I read this in a tribute by Frank Iacobucci, a retired justice of the Canadian Supreme Court, upon the death of his friend and colleague, Yale Law Professor Robert A. Burt. (Incidentally, I was the assistant director and research fellow on the project where Iacobucci and Burt met, so this tribute struck a particular chord with me.)

A man passed by a site where three men were working.

“What are you doing?” he asked the first man.

“Earning five dollars a day,” the man replied.

“What are you doing?” he asked the second man.

“I’m cutting stone,” the man replied.

“What are you doing?” he asked the third man.

“I’m building a cathedral,” the man answered.

May you always see the cathedral in everything you do.