A SOCIAL MEDIA LOVE STORY…
So one of my favorite people on this Facebook page is a young woman named May, who lives in El Salvador and who just (yesterday!) turned 15.
May pops up on this page almost every day like a bright burst of light — always passionate, always opinionated, always enthusiastic.
Some of you have become friends with May (she's pretty irresistible), including another sweet follower of this page named Janice, who lives in the UK.
So last night, I did a big event in London at the Southbank Centre, and afterwards, when I was signing books, this lovely woman approached me in the book-signing line and introduced herself as Janice, from Facebook. I knew exactly who she was, and as I was greeting her, she told me that she'd been communicating with sweet young May, in El Salvador, all night long during my event. (Sort of a one-person live-tweeting.)
Then she told me that May had asked her to bring me a gift, a little something — anything — from her. So Janice had taken it upon herself to bring me this tiny heart-shaped stone from her garden, which she then placed in my hand with the words, "This is from me and May, to you."
That's when I almost started crying.
I cannot think of a more beautiful use of social media than this kind of inter-global connection — across countries, across ages, across backgrounds.
Last night, to put it simply, a woman in London put a tiny heart-shaped stone in the palm of an American writer, on behalf of a passionate teenage girl in El Salvador whom neither of us have ever met in person, but whom we both have come care for deeply because of…well, typed words on a flickering screen.
And for a moment my whole world pulsed with love.
It's not such a bad life after all, right?
Thank you ALL for all the care and kindness,
LG
