I absolutely loved hearing Dani Shapiro read from and talk about Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
My favorite book of Dani’s remains Devotion, and it’s not an overstatement to say that that book changed real and substantial aspects of how I inhabit the world. She gave me permission, in some ways, to live the questions. I don’t have answers, and that’s ok.
It was a treat to attend Dani’s event with one of my very oldest and dearest friends, Jessica. I’ve written about Jessica before, and it’s a huge joy that she and her family moved to a town near ours last year. She has taken a class with Dani before too (I’m waiting for Jessica, a gorgeous writer, to publish a book!) and we went together to the event in Brookline.
The whole night was an interesting collision of real-life and online friends. I sat next to a friend I’ve known since I was 12, long before the internet existed. Another friend I knew first in person and then online was there. I was listening to a mentor who I met online and have since gotten to know in real life speak. I saw and met several friends that I’ve first connected with online: Jessica Braun, Laura McKowen, Rebecca Pacheco, Jennifer Blecher.
The evening was a wonderful swirl of real and online life, and reminded me that there are real relationships to be made in each. The online world gets a tough rap, I think, and there are certainly risks to digital communication. But I also think genuine relationships can be seeded there, and I’m grateful for the people I’ve encountered here and on Instagram and elsewhere who have become real friends.
What has your experience of online friendships been?
I highly, highly recommend Inheritance
I am so grateful for my online friendships, and never hesitate to refer to you as “my friend Lindsey,” even though we just officially met last week. I feel there is a special kind of intimacy to a friendship that revolves around each other’s writing and nothing else. And if we are most vulnerable in our writing, than maybe we know the truest version of the other person….we are not concerned with all the typical barriers that can impede female friendship? Anyway, I am rambling, but the bottom line is that I am so happy to know you:)
I totally agree. I met my friend, Kristen, though our mutual blogs 8+ years ago, and in that times we’ve traveled back and forth across the country several times to meet up with each other. We’ve met each others families, and now that I’m living in Vienna, Austria, I think we’ll meet up in Europe next summer. Seeded in the virtual world; watered, tended, and grown in the real one. It doesn’t have to be either/or! PS: I love Inheritance, too.
Loved this post! We had Dani at ModernWell last night. It was such a great night!! I’ve loved her work forever.