out of the blue

The other day, I received one of those out-of-the-blue emails from a woman on the Pacific coast. It had to do with the fact that this woman had once taken a class at Smith College with my father, a teacher of Shakespeare.

In this day and age, if I had been one of my kids, I suppose I might have searched the internet for some background on the woman, but that was not my first reaction. I like the magic of individuals coming into contact and then feeling the relationship burgeon. Only later did I look this woman up and find that she was a writer. And somehow, because I learned more about her, I knew less.

My kids might have gone immediately to the internet and its details that seemed to tell the tale and yet left the tale untold: Why had I received this email? What was the impetus? What magic had been aroused and why?

It's always an unsure thing, these blind emails. What is it that moves a person to take the time? How crazy -- if at all -- is s/he? The internet, which can assert its capacity to bring people closer together, is more given to increasing the spaces between them. What could I give in return to this out-of-the-blue magic ... and was it wise to do so?

I like the contact and yet am unsure how to respond adequately or appropriately.

Ah well, perhaps the whole thing will drop off the edge of some flat earth -- disappear into some change-of-heart silence that will remain silent.

My kids rely on the internet. And on occasion, I too am wooed to the smiles that are shadows of the Real McCoy. I'm a fan of an honest, face-to-face smile, relationships reaching out like some ravenous honeysuckle vine. The internet cannot provide that so....

I guess whatever I am trying to say here will be consigned, as elsewhere, to the basket marked "patience."