Thursday, October 22, 2009

Small World

I like to blog-surf: click on a link on someone else's
blog, or on a commenter's profile, and go from there.
It's stunning how quickly one can traverse the planet
via the blog-machine. You start seeing connections
between blogs, poets that follow each other, virtual
friendships that have sprung up and sent out their
tentacles through other virtual "blog-ships."
But my absolutely favorite thing is when I'm led back
to my hometown on this journey, and the circle completes.
Recently, I hopped from Denmark to Switzerland to
England to Australia and then back to Seattle (with a few
other stops/layovers along the way), where a blogger
had written about walking along Lake Washington Boulevard,
one of my favorite spots in the city and for many years
five minutes from my house.

This is the modern version of the pen-pal.
Remember pen-pals? Mine lived in Norway,
which, in 1967, seemed exotic and light-years away.
I still have her letters (her name was Kari)
and a Norwegian coin she sent me.
Maybe I can locate her, out there in the blogosphere.
Then again, maybe it will happen all by itself.

[Addendum: after I hit "publish", I went to facebook,
and Guess Who I Found.]

7 comments:

  1. My tightest blog friendships are all in other countries, go figure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You found Kari? How cool! Now you can be keyboard pals.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bill -- welcome!

    Sandra -- oops! Wrong Kari. I'm still trying, though. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, just saw the last comment; I thought you'd found Kari. I think it's easier to find old male friends. I'm missing some of my High School chums; I won't tell you how many years later!!

    Isn't it fantastic, though, that we talk to people we've never met all over the world!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is a small world and I love it. Lake Washington too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had a Dutch, male penpal for a while in the 90s. We did have the opportunity to meet when I was in England. We were much better on paper.
    I love blog-travel!

    ReplyDelete