Years ago, when I worked as a lowly Associate at private communications law firms, I pondered the meaning of Partners’ small Lucite tombstones commemorating an initial public stock offering, or the closing of a financing or acquisition deal. 

             Some Associates may have gotten a tombstone, but I never did . . . until quite recently.

             In the mail this week I received a tombstone commemorating my first place academic paper at the 2020 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, Law Division annual conference.

             Just now, I am reminded of vanity and the psychology concept of cognitive dissonance: how lawyers and academics alike toil endlessly for meaning and validation.