I’ve told you before, O Reader, that I do not write this blog for you.
No, what we have here is a Selfish Act, a kind of hedonism. I write here for myriad reasons, and some of them, I will admit, are good ones. But the sad and honest truth is that, in the end, writing makes me feel better. Writing here, well…. There is Something about sending one’s writing out into the ether and knowing that Somewhere Someone might be an audience.
So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising the pleasure I feel when I learn of a new reader, or am reminded of one. Yes, surprisingly, information like that can Make My Day.
In the last twenty-four hours, I have had this experience Twice. Yes, twice, I say. That would be Two (2) times.
The first was just this evening, in an e-mail from our dear Karl, who wrote to say hello, and that they missed us when we were in Asheville, and to send me some of his own writing (which I knew would be good, and it Is), and to say that he keeps tabs on some of life here by reading this blog.
Karl and Julie and their darling little Pierce dismayed us all by moving away a few months ago, and they left a dreadful Ruch-shaped hole in our landscape, a hole we attempt to dodge, and drive around, and sometimes ignore, but which, ultimately, is a Sad State of Affairs.
We miss you guys.
And the other was from someone I have neither corresponded with nor clapped eyes on in years, I think, sad as that may be. A former student e-mailed me to say hello, and to say that he’d been reading these pages, and to delight me with a written fluency and vocabulary impressive enough to let me imagine that I might very well have been a good teacher after all.
I was So Happy to hear from him.
I am finding that things like these are vital in these early days, these days when I am finding my feet since my world has shifted Utterly and I’m entirely Too Busy and I don’t even have time to call my mother or my dearest friend who has left Two (is it Two?) messages on my answering service.
Yes, connections like these are vital in a true sense of that word. Connections like these are life-giving during a time when I am too busy to sense my life ebbing away. And I don’t mean that I am dying, and I don’t mean that I am ill. I just mean that I am busy with a world of Newness, and that so much newness, while exciting and good and, eventually, life-giving, can really knock the breath out of you when it is So Very New.
Things Will Get Better.
In fact, they already Are.
But in the meantime, if you are one of those dear ones who wrote, or left messages, or is waiting somehow to hear from me, please know that I Can’t Thank You Enough. Thank you so much for reminding me of who I am based in how I am connected to you. I promise I will call you (or write) back.
Eventually.
