I've posted before on what I'm getting from blogging. On my earlier list of benefits was camraderie. Maybe a better word for it is "friendship."
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of spending a beautiful Saturday in New York City with friends -- all friends I've made in the past 4 months of blogging.
Except for CK, these were people I didn't know four short months ago. But through blogging, enhanced by emails and phone conversations, I am honored and pleased to call them my friends. Drew McLellan, who joined us from Des Moines with his wife and daughter, Lewis Green who came in from the Hartford area, Luc Debaisieux (Mindblob), who flew in from Brussels just for this and brought us all delicious Belgian chocolates to boot, and from Modena, Italy via Philadelphia, the Conversation Agent, bella Valeria Maltoni, whom I had met several weeks earlier.
(Photo: Standing, Lewis, Luc,Drew, David. Seated, CK and Valeria)
The reason for the get-together was to introduce ck to the tree we and about 20 others who couldn't be in New York presented in memory of her mom -- a tree adorning a quiet little oasis on 114th Street in Spanish Harlem. After presenting ck with the tree and the plaque dedicated to Sandra Kerley, we headed back to midtown and had brunch in Bryant Park, behind the main public library on 42nd Street. After the food was long gone, we lingered and talked and laughed... about ourselves, our work, our personal histories and families and even, at times, about blogging.
After about 4 hours, as the waiters were starting to set up around us for a private party, we finally -- and reluctantly -- left to head our separate ways. CK took Luc to see some NYC highlights before he headed back to the airport, Valeria went to the train to head back to Philadelphia, Drew went to find his family before they broke the bank at the Gucci store on Fifth Avenue, Lewis went to find a place for a cold beer before going for the train, and I drove back home -- 15 miles north to Mount Vernon.
I know that as we went our separate ways, we all were floating a few feet off the ground, high from the wonderful few hours we had together -- friends brought together by this new medium that I, a year ago, had called "a waste of time."
Little did I know back then what a wonderful investment of time it would turn out to be. The ROI is, in my mind, priceless.