Building (Digital) Community
We're Often Taken Aback By Your Generosity
One of the somewhat strange but also really neat things about having Little Bean become more involved in the day to day updates and posts of Day By Day is that we (mainly she) gets so much encouragement from our readers, family and friends. We get suggestions. Advice. Sometimes gifts. Very very occasionally it gets somewhat weird, but that’s very rare (mainly because I curate and control her exposure fairly tightly).
Mostly, it’s all positive.
It’s satisfying because we’ve worked really hard to make this space healthy and encouraging. It also gives me a chance to work in social media constructively with her.
So, I wanted to take a moment today to mention some of those things. I’ll keep these mentions general for now, but in due time we’ll write about each of these things and then go into detail with links and so forth then.
From a music fan in Minnesota, Little Bean received a gift of band socks and a whole box of hand made buttons. We’ll have a short reel up on our YouTube channel about that soon.
From a composer and musician, we got three links to rough drafts of a song he’s writing about our adventures!
One poet in particular occasionally writes poems based on our posts or adventures.
One of her favorite bands sent her a envelope of patches, tattoos and charms.
Two wonderful music fans worked together to help us secure sold out VIP tickets so Little Bean could meet The Warning in Boston.
One reader was moving away and donated her entire, incredible rock collection to Little Bean.
Another gifted her with a beautiful fossilized tooth!
Another husband and wife musician couple is writing songs about my book, The White Mountain.
A graphic illustrator created a one-of-a-kind venue poster for her to have the band sign in Boston.
We’ve received post cards, thank you notes, and so so many links to interesting rocks, history, music or books.
The picture I’m including here - yup, that was the gift of information of a park dedicated to Little Debbie snacks that came from a reader so we had to go there! I’ll write about that soon.
And the most amazing, incredible gift of them all will be in our home sometime today. Little Bean was gifted a stand up piano from a dear friend who has been reading about our musical adventures. I’ll write about that miracle tomorrow.
There’s others I’m sure that we’ve been honored by over the past few months, and of course we’ve worked hard to make sure she understands the fortunate position she finds herself in and to give back whenever and as often as she can.
All in all, as we move closer to 500 subscribers (which seems crazy!) the lessons continue, as well as the positive power of community building - yes, digital community can still be community.
Anyway, we wanted to let you all know that we see you! Your kindness and gifts and engagement is appreciated! A new chapter begins tomorrow with that one, big delivery and I’ll tell you about it then. On we go!
I hope there were Zebra Cakes in the Little Debbie park.
Your writing brightens my day!