Response to ‘You Get to Play Again Tomorrow’ post

Wow! It really is possible for an individual to change the world.

After I posted the story, ‘You get to play again tomorrow’, on Jan 20, I expected the usual response: some emails, normal level of site visits.

This time I received an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.

First I noticed that the number of hits to the blog jumped significantly. I did my usual promotion:

• email to my usual distribution list (thanks for continuing to put up with the email blast :))
• twittered it (http://twitter.com; follow me ‘Chris_Morales’)
• posted on facebook business/networking groups (http://www.facebook.com/)
• posted on Linkedin groups I belong to (http://www.linkedin.com/ .

Then I started getting emails. All complementary. Unusual. At first I chalked it up the giddiness of the day: January 20, Barak Obama’s inauguration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4

Later that afternoon though, the answer was revealed. It came in the form of an email chain from a friend who had found the topic particularly relevant. He had not only forwarded it on to his staff, but had also sent it on to his associates in his company across the country!

This blew me away. I started blogging last fall as a rant (I had just lost my job at the time) and while it has morphed and changed over the months, I did not expect that it could be influential. Pleasant surprise.

As I reflected on this during the evening while watching Obama’s Inauguration Ball (yes, I watched over 8 hours of inauguration coverage that day!), I grew to appreciate the significance of what had happened. I was humbled and reminded of the fact that there are decent people in the world. It re-affirmed my personal belief system: act morally, ethically and treat others with respect at home, work and play.

As a final comment on this, here are two responses that from the email chain (I have removed the identities to protect their privacy)

• “Great (and edifying) story and made me think immediately of a few times both my kids and kids I coached said something similar, BUT, never took the time to write down”

• “This arrived at an opportune moment yesterday as doom and gloom was being spouted by some people in the office. This provided perspective and I've tuned the doom and gloomers out! We are playing again tomorrow!”
  

Thanks for forwarding the email, JY. And thanks again Andrew for teaching us that we do get to play again tomorrow.