« Google News priorities | Main | Full Tues Keynote coverage »
October 19, 2005
About last night...
About last night: Personal note, and a mushy one too.... ;-) Last night was the main party at MAX, at a Disney location which served beer. I was pretty ticked off on arrival... verging on exhaustion, then spending twice as long as predicted sitting in a packed humid bus, without feedback info, only to find we were travelling a quarter-mile as the crow flies, and then being blared by 80+db 4/4 backbeats (from only certain record labels, I'd bet) tailored for a social effect which in no way represented the wonderful diversity of attendees (so many skin tones and physical types! so many languages! so many work and life histories!) But... some red wine, some real vegetables and lean protein, a pipe and a stroll started to mellow me out. And then I mostly sat on the side, in the shadows, enjoying all the people walking past... high-fiving and hugging some of the many friends I've made here who happened to spy me out... wondering about the passers-by I haven't yet met... thinking of what each of us is accomplishing in our own lives, the work each is contributing to others... realizing that the thousands of really smart people I saw were only a small fraction of the larger "us" around the planet, engaged in this work, making things better for all... I was really touched, tears still well in my eyes now, typing. I don't know how to say it, but thanks. Thank you, each and every one, for what you're doing here, for believing that we can indeed make this a better world. Thank you. (And... if you tease me about this post when we run into each other later today, I'll sock you in the arm and stalk away with my head down, rilly I will.... ;-)
Posted by John Dowdell at October 19, 2005 8:03 AM