Remember in Victorian novels, how a young person headed off to the Big City To Seek His Fortune carried with him a Letter Of Introduction from a family friend, to be given to a Person Of Note who would then take him around and introduce him to The Right People? Turns out a blog serves the same function quite adequately. Normally I have horrible, horrible trouble talking to public figures - not even "celebrities", but people whose names are known - since the interchange always seems uneven. I know intellectually that most people in general are pleasant and, if they're in the public eye, less shy than me (not hard) and enjoy conversation - but there you go. Just a social neuro-tic that shuts my mouth.
Upon yesterday's discovery of the local CMG webpage with the picket schedule, I found that John Gushue would be on the line that very afternoon. It would take a deep breath just to pass by and give the group a thumbs-up. But John Gushue knows me, or will know who I am when I introduce myself. A good start. So I screwed up my courage (yes, yes, since I've screwed up everything else), got off the bus after work and walked up the hill.
He was there; he did know me; and we leaned on the wall with John's picket sign and yacked for about half an hour, about cabbages and kings. Easy as pie. Introduced me to Mark Cumby - a Bishop Feild parent, as it turns out - and Sherry Banfield. I'm humbly pleased to hear that he enjoyed our chat as well, and by now I'm sounding like a maudlin idiot, but John, if you'll be there next Tuesday (and I hope not, since not means good news), so will I.