Dear Feastlings,
I know it’s no secret to you that I write these emails in between scores of other responsibilities, or when I’m agitated or depressed, or any combination of the above. Consequently, the emails are fairly riddled with typographical errors, and I’ll often as not get a little note back from someone like me who, try as they might, can’t resist the siren’s song of making that correction.
For the record, those corrections never irritate me, or not so much as they bring the shame I feel over my sloppy work to the surface. I come from a family in which, when my mother went away to college and wrote letters home, they’d come back to her the following week marked up in red by her own English-teacher mother. Corrections make us stronger.
Nonetheless, of all the emails I got in reply to yesterday’s note, not one corrected the typo I made while attempting to reference the story of a gaggle of blind men each feeling a different part of an elephant and describing the creature variously as snake-like, fan-like, spear-like, treetrunk-like and what have you.
I was replying to one of you regarding something completely different when I noticed I had inadvertently mentioned a bland man feeling an elephant rather than a blind one, and when I realized you all had left my page unmarked by figurative red pen, it felt good, or mostly good. I now wonder how many dozens (or scores) of errors I’d made that people simply felt too polite to point out. So thanks for that, though I’ll say it again: I grew up thinking corrections were just a simple daily part of human interaction and communication.
It feels good to have 4600 people on my side, even if mostly unintentionally, but I’ll be okay if you point out my shortcomings as a typist, grammarian or punctuator. My skin is thickening up all the time, contrary to what you might think after reading a few of my emails.
But you’re likely not reading this far to see what old Doug has to say; instead, you want to know how to access this, today’s wine tasting:
So here it is, the Zoom meeting info for today’s wine tasting. We hope you’ll decide to join us.
Doug Levy is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Trust fall
Time: Oct 16, 2021 02:00 PM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81044991375?pwd=enhPckorREI4QTRPNmZTL0VwVk1JQT09
Meeting ID: 810 4499 1375
Passcode: 371052
See you on the screen, and we’ll let you know how the in-person tastings progress. We’re getting really close, we promise. In the meanwhile, we’re keeping our plate full by sending meals out to member of our community who could use a meal. Here’s a bit more on next week’s donation run, the first of three monthly runs to Youth on Their Own:
Thanks,
Doug