Sometimes you just don’t know the power of your own actions.
About once a month I write a column in my local paper. It’s one of my reasons for writing a blog, actually – my random rants here are hacked down to 300 words, polished slightly and turned into “youth oriented” opinion pieces. Given the publication’s readership, “youth” means anyone under the age of 55.
These pieces are designed to be enjoyable, albeit forgetable, fluff. They’re about things like portable music, blogging (ooh, meta), and how running a business is like building with Lego – I’m hardly vying for a Walkley here.
I write them, I email them off and then eventually I see them in the paper accompanied by my photo, a reporter’s non-threatening vox pop, and ads of local Mahjong groups.
Then I forget about them. And so, I assume, does everyone else. Or, at least, that’s what I thought.
This letter was forwarded to me last week…
Dear Ms Daley,
Hi there, my name is xxxxxxx, I saw your picture and articles you write in the paper.
I am a solicitor aged 29 and single, and was wondering if you are single and if so, whether you like or are interested to catch up with me sometime to get to know eachother?
Please forgive me if this email comes as a surprise to you, and I look foreward to hearing from you.
Regards,
xxxxxxx
Had I known my writing would be read like a personals ad, I might not have mentioned the Lego…
“Oh dear” is all I have to say to that…
I’ll be sad and miss you when you go a-travelling Keira! Group emails! We’ll all need group emails when the heart and soul of the Blank! cast is gone… quasi-prophetic foretelling of your return, and poignant hints at all the ways in which your trip is changing you.
What metaphorical magical elixirs will you be bringing back? What new wisdoms will you bring to bear on all your greyish, mundane Sydney friends? bon voyage mon petit croissant, soon the glow of impending adventure will effuse from your newly straightened self, and we muttering groundlings can but watch you striding into the sunset like some mythical heroine.
Merci beaucoup – your words are poetry, mon ami!
Fear not, there will certainly be group emails. You know I shan’t be able to help myself!