Another Triumph For Blogging

In 2021, my Canadian friend Peter Rukavina sent me a sample of his letterpress printing work that also acted as the official membership card of The Pen & Pencil Club of Prince Edward Island where he lives. These virtual fountain pen chats during COVID had me stay up very late but it was all worth it. I met Peter through other blogger friends present in another weird random Zoom call I jumped into on a whim that turned out to be first Dutch Obsidian knowledge sharing meetup. Virtual friends of friends are obviously also my virtual friends. In other words, it was a true Triumph For Blogging!

Since then, almost five years have passed, but in true blogging fashion, we’ve kept up with each other’s lives through RSS and email. When Peter blogged that he was coming to Belgium—to Liège to be exact, which is only half an hour from where we live—it’s as if the blogging gods decided it was time we finally met in person.

So we did:

I can’t possibly express in words how it felt to finally meet someone in person for the first time—someone you somehow know quite intimately. You know their hobbies, you’ve peeked into their garden, kitchen, and living room, you know what they like to listen to and read, you know their grief and grievances with their local government. You know what EV they’re driving and why, you know their professional history, their parental struggles, and their preference for all things tangible. You know they recently broke their elbow, how they recovered, you know about their cycling trips, and most of all: when their first daffodil appeared in their garden.

The weirdest thing is the fact that they know all these things about me as well. Except for the daffodil: that was more than a month ago, if I recall correctly. We immediately started chatting about all of the above without even a hint of initial social awkwardness that is customary when chatting with a complete stranger. After all, Peter is anything but a stranger. Perhaps only a “physical one”?

As Peter mentioned in his blog—he beat me to it, so with his permission I stole the photo Lisa took of us—It was indeed lovely to finally meet in person.

Another Triumph For Blogging!

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