Morning Glory

Whenever Stan goes to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (or as we aging Westwood hipsters call it, The Bean—and if aging Westwood hipsters isn't a triple contradiction in terms, I don't know what is), he comes home and reports the theme of the day. Usually it's a wardrobe theme, like "men in suspenders" or "women in tight skirts and spike heels," though why he would notice those is beyond me. The theme is whatever he saw a lot of during the couple of hours he sat there.

My theme of the day is: generosity. I saw a lot of it today.

Really it started a few weeks ago, when my Twitter friend—okay, woops, sorry, have to branch off here into what my friend Bob Canzoneri would call a tributary:

This is not going to be a blog about Twitter. In an ideal world, this would be the last post in which I even mention Twitter. Not that I don't love Twitter. But talking about Twitter is unnecessary for people who are on it and annoying for people who aren't. So, no Twitter. Except this once.

A few weeks ago, my Twitter friend Bumble Ward (@bumbleward on Twitter) wrote and said, "Susan, do you have a blog?"

"Oh, thanks for asking, but no," I said. "Maybe someday!" I chirped. I think I even used the exclamation point, ick.

But really, I was amazed at the idea of someone apparently wanting to read more of what I'd written. Isn't that like asking to see someone's slideshow from their vacation in Wisconsin?

Okay, cut to the chase: I start this blog. I write to Bumble on Twitter to thank her for the inspiration. She writes back with congratulations.

A few minutes later, I see that Nancy Friedman (@fritinancy), she of the 1900 followers, has tweeted, "Excellent news: @susanchamplin has a new blog," and gives my url. Excellent news? The fact that I started a blog is excellent news?

Before I can process this astounding concept, I get comments from three more people—perfect strangers—about my blog. I think I was actually sweating at this point. Later in the day, @NewsyGal writes her own blog post about Katharine Hepburn and tweets that it was "inspired by @susanchamplin's blog... ." And @LibertyLndnGirl has offered advice on publicizing Stan's and my book.

All right, I know that for Twitter folks, this is nothing new. This is how Twitter works. But really, this isn't about Twitter. Twitter is just the enabler. But it starts with this extraordinary generosity of spirit that floats out there like dandelion seeds on a breeze. I am, to borrow the British expression, gobsmacked by the generosity of people who don't even know me in supporting my efforts.

Thank you all, so much. I'm grateful. I'm humbled. I'm sweating.

So Kate (can I call you Kate? No?), so Miss Hepburn: Thank you. You said, "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put into this world to rise above." And you got me to rise above my "Maybe someday!" nature and just do the damn thing. And look what happened—you got your name in print all over the place.