Here is the Love

Wow... I'm a bit overwhelmed, and feeling all warm and fuzzy. I was happy to see I got some comments from previous posts, so of course I checked them out. There was a great turnout from people around the world, many of whom were strangers to me until now. Big shout-outs to everyone who linked from Running2Ks: you made me feel welcome and I'm proud to be a small part of R2K's most esteemed network of Nice People. I like your blogs! Peace to my bro, the supa-dupa supaviza of White Elephant, who now knows who I am and gets the reference.

I highly recommend Running2Ks blog; among other things, it is positive and inspirational. And she wrote a whole post about re-connecting with me! Peep that because she tells the tale better than I could. Her perspective gave me new insight (and newly-refreshed memories).

Looking through the comments to our respective posts made me realize another major reason to be involved in blogging: connecting with people in a way only possible in today's digital age. My blog is called "fedderschei" for a reason, folks. More on that depressed/introverted/noncommunicative cycle later, but let me note that there are REAL people out there, with REAL issues, I believe they are Good People, and there's a lot to talk/blog about. It is amazing to have made a difference in someone's life; others have meant so much to me. R2K and everyone else: making the effort back then, and a few days ago, will always be one of the most meaningful things I've done in my life. Thank you!

Let's go back then right now ("flux capacitor... fluxing"). I'll close with a quote I've carried around with me since my college days. Thank you for the comment on my previous post, Jen; I will now reveal that "does justice to our humanity" is really just a misquoted part of what my friend Chuck B. had framed in his office circa 1993:

An honorable human relationship-- that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word "love"-- is a process; delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.

It is important to do this because it breaks down human self-delusion and isolation.

It is important to do this because in doing so we do justice to our own complexity.

It is important to do this because we can count on so few that go that hard way with us.

--Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence