If you are reading this, it concerns us both. I joined Facebook two years ago today. Actually, it was by accident. I wanted to leave a commentary on a link that was sent to me by email from Craig Rutenberg, as email was my social network of choice in those days. Well, I clicked to join, and left my comment. And the adventure began.
The gratitude I would like to express to you all is multiple. Yes, I also curse at Facebook, struggle with the legion of idiosyncrasies, get “friend” requests every day from siliconed Eastern European hookers, but then reboot the next day, like we all do. I don’t think that I could have kept up with all this in the days when my time was filled with rehearsing, memorizing music, travelling, and performing. That seems somehow contradictory, and I could not have afforded the time. What happened to me happened at just the right time, June 11, 2017.
It would already have been enough to be reunited here with college classmates at New England Conservatory of Music, high school classmates at Pavilion Central School, former colleagues in music and art around the world, relatives and long-lost relatives, not to mention former lovers! I have also become acquainted with well-wishing strangers, friends of friends, husbands/wives of friends, pets of friends, and especially keenly passionate folks devoted in one way or another to many of the things I love, too numerous to mention here. You are in Australia, in North and South America, en France bien entendu, and everywhere in Europe and Russia, even India. Facebook friends have broadened my curiosity, brought to my attention grave issues about disability, politics, and have suggested listening and reading that enrich my every day.
And I must mention my astonishment at the generosity of several Facebook friends, so many whom I did not even know just two years ago. It’s truly a wonder that I have received surprise packages involving my various passions for food, bel canto, Broadway, books, you name it. I have been encouraged to write by countless kind messages, and am grateful for that.
The adventure, our adventure, continues. I’ve still got lots of ideas, that’s for sure.
Photo: Nicolas de Largillièrre, around 1725-1730, décor fragment from the artist’s home on rue Geoffroy d’Angevin, Paris (about 20 meters from where I live). Musée du Louvre