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Big Numbers and Small Gifts




Over eight hundred people read yesterday’s blog post. There are reasons for that. I’d like to think that it’s because I connected with a subject that is of great local concern right now. But that’s not the only reason. I was able to post it in a Facebook community that has wide readership, and those readers are largely people who want to learn and think, and who care about people other than themselves. Without that springboard, yesterday’s post would have reached far fewer readers.

I’m grateful to the folks who built and who are sustaining that online community. It fills an important need in Howard County.

I joked with my husband last night that just once I’d like eight hundred people to read one of my quirky posts about that weird building or an unexpected business or an epiphany I had while driving around town on a beautiful spring day.  Those posts are what keep the blog going most days of the year and what make the big, gut-wrenching posts bearable. No one could live with shock, fear, tragedy, and anger day after day…could they?* 

We need balance. We need time to recover. We need the occasional laugh or the joy of learning some new little thing.

If you read yesterday’s post, thank you. I’m still processing the response and I will be writing a follow up post soon. If you had never read my blog before I want you to know it’s not heart-wrenching every day. As much as I care about the Very Big Issues, I’m also interested in things like:

  • The new skate park at Blandair
  • Columbia Maryland has a Backgammon Club?
  • The Jamaican Relief effort spearheaded by Althea’s Almost Famous
  • Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel is advocating for a Bottle Bill? 
  • The Judge’s Bench in OEC hosting Irish Trad sessions

The quirky little posts are perhaps my favored children. I tell them they are important even if they don’t make the big numbers. Honestly they don’t mind because they are quite full of themselves.  I see them all as small gifts waiting to be unwrapped. And sometimes the small gifts are the best.




*Yeah, yeah. I know. 



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