Yo! Bro!

 

At our reunion in December, I managed to coerce two more family members into following my blog. Last night, during a Skype session, I snagged the last remaining sibling.

“Do you read my blog?” I asked innocently. To which he had no choice but to say, “Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to do that . . .”

At which point he was trapped.

“You know most of the people who know me and aren’t bloggers themselves just follow by email . . . (followed by an explanation of what that means) . . . tell you what. Open your web browser right now . . . now type in circumstance227.wordpress.com . . . no caps . . . now look in the bottom right corner – see the ‘Follow’ button? Press that. Now type in your email address . . .”

I suppose there might have been some point where he could still have wheedled his way out of this, but he didn’t. And now he has just gotten his first email notification.

Yo! Bro! How’s it going?

To commemorate your initiation into Trek* World, here’s a little blast from the past:

For other readers, a short explanation: This particular brother spent two summers in his youth on massively long bike trips with two friends. It must have been in the early 70s, because one of the articles mentions them “starting High School in the fall”. I don’t remember much other than the huge beer can collection he came home with. And how surprising it was that he could find so many empty cans in such good condition just lying there on the side of the road!

On a less facetious note, the whole story amazes me somehow. In today’s world of too little trust and too much general anxiety, it is hard to imagine the 15-year-old who would want to do this, much less be allowed to. The world and parenting norms have changed, and not necessarily for the better.

On the other hand, my own personal world got better today.