Yesterday, in a fairly amateurish fashion, I spoke of a wish I had in a diary posted on DKos. I never got to read the comments until today.
Now I must, must say something to the folks who responded.
Follow me on this, over the break.
I had been wishing to see more photos of Barack Obama. He is on a historic trip to Russia, and the photos I saw on the sites I knew about were very unsatisfactory, in general.
It was not clear to me what I expected when I posted the diary. I was mostly wanting to reach out and tell someone. I was tired of all the awful stuff I have read about the President with him off in Russia, Europe and Africa and not able to watch his back.
Today I looked, and I felt tears in my eyes. Some of the the DKos community gave me tutorials on how to find photos, some debated the question about whether I had "called out" someone in my title, and then near the end I was almost knocked completely off my chair in astonishment because one commentator posted the biggest supply of Barack Obama photos I have ever seen anyplace.
Gratitude is not a strong enough word for the generosity of this gesture.
In the end, I felt a little embarrassed that despite my good education, I am inferior to the people who write really good diaries and commentaries on this site. Then it occurred to me that I have my own part. It does not hurt to be inferior, to not be up to speed. I have this role in the community, but I can learn as I go along and so one day maybe I'll be able to help someone else.
I doubt I will ever be able to do it with any more grace than what was shown to me yesterday. This is a very special site, and the people who visit it and write for it make me feel proud to be inside this community, even in my little part of it.