This is the fourth year for Spinal Cord Series and Cases and my third as editor. I’ve realized these past couple of years might be called the hashtag years and I am not sure whether I am proud or embarrassed to say I just recently learned what a hashtag is for (I invite you to go look it up if you do not know). One recent development that we have had for the journal is the development of a Facebook page and we are working on increasing our presence on Twitter and other social media. This is an area where we are definitely in need of support and if any of you are interested, please send me an email. Although this was not first on my list of things to accomplish when I took on the journal, I am realizing the need has come. I guess my reticence may date me.

Despite just moving into social media, over the past 3 years, through Spinal Cord Series and Cases, we have presented a variety of papers ranging from new technologies and treatments to exploring the issues of persons with spinal cord injury disorders (SCI/Ds) who have never seen a doctor. An overreaching goal I have for this journal is to explore the vast diversity of humanity and how the lives of persons with SCI/D are very different depending on where they are from and their personal backgrounds and I continue to look for these submissions.

Having an SCI/D is having a disorder unlike any other. Not only does it cause medical concerns and morbidities, it changes the fabric of your being. Instantly, it transcends you from a life of movement to a more spiritual existence where you must reexplore your pains, pleasures, and goals and reinvent yourself. Moreover, the way you do this is dependent on your background, where you live and your personal situation.

We are living in a rapidly changing Earth. The opioid crisis has changed patterns of prescribing for persons with pain. Extreme weather has increased in frequency around the world. We are in the phase of the sixth mass extinction on our planet and climate change is accelerating. New challenges are occurring for persons with SCIs. Between changes in prescribing, and accessibility issues for persons that cannot control their temperature, it is time for us to reassess our care of persons with SCIs and ourselves.

Yet if we look at our individual environments, we can lose the forest in the trees. The pace of change and even the presence of change is different, depending on where you are from. Some people have simple existences. Many of us have lives that are so busy with our own day to day issues that we have difficulty sitting down and focusing for a few minutes. There are good and bad things about each of these extremes and we need to take the time to figure them out.

I am beginning a quest this June to walk from Canada to Key West and launching The Day for Tomorrow on September 22, 2019—a day when people are encouraged to walk to bring attention to the issues of people with disabilities in extreme weather. My mission is to highlight the issues extreme weather is causing persons with SCI/Ds and other disabilities so people can sustain their abilities. My concern is that it doesn’t matter how much progress we make with technology and promoting recovery—we must also pay attention to the basics before it is too late. So consider checking out and learning more at canadatokeywest.org. As editor-in-chief, I really want you to keep sending in cases. We want to know what’s happening in your clinics and what issues persons with SCI/Ds are having at home and elsewhere. And if you have a talent for social media, please reach out to me because we need your help at the journal. If you are a younger clinician or research and new to SCI, this will be a great opportunity for you to get involved.

One of the benefits of a journal like Spinal Cord Series and Cases is the ability to publishing new state-of-the-art information. So, when you see something new or different and you want to share your information please submit to the journal or email me at SCSC. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. And, if you have any ideas about new areas of focus, or ideas for our pulse or point counterpoint series, please let me know and we’ll consider them. Remember this is your journal and we’re all here to help each other!