15 Minutes of Fame

Posted on by Live & Learn

space-shuttle-launch

Monday:

It’s early afternoon. There are ripples. The wind picks up during the day. There are 9,000 blog views by bed time, 8,500 views for a single post, more than 10x my Total average daily views. (Not that I’m counting.) 

I ferret out the source of traffic: Facebook. I’m unsuccessful at locating the fire starter.

Monday EOD Count: 11,000 views

Tuesday:

I wake to find my blog with 18,000 new views.  18,000 views overnight!  No caffeine required.

I sneak peaks during the day to find post views are climbing at more than 5,000 per hour. Heart? Pumping.

The site traffic is picked up by two media sources who send an email requesting my permission to share the post on their site. They ask for my photo.  Oh No. No. No. No.  I reply with thanks, but no thanks.

I go to bed, and sneak a peak at the view count. 101,000. And counting.

Tuesday EOD Count: 125,000

Wednesday (Today):

I wake to find the Facebook traffic is now rolling over to Twitter and WordPress. The pot is boiling. Traffic count at 3:30am: 25,000 additional views. I’m checking in hourly. It’s a tidal wave.

Anxiety level: High.  Anonymity Desire: High and surging with each click of traffic count.

(The post, this one here, is a story, a wonderful story by a famed poet, songwriter and novelist. It was published in 2009 and featured in another book by a different author printed in 2014. It’s going VIRAL. My role? Cut, paste and hit PUBLISH.)

8:42 pm count: 211,181.  211,181 new views for the day. And still climbing.

Epilogue? It’s coming. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, it’s bedtime. And yes, I’ll be sleeping with my eyes wide open.

Photograph Source: nasahistory

 

64 thoughts on “15 Minutes of Fame”

  5. Congratulations. Isn’t it amazing how something will grow from the most anonymous of sources. The story was moving in and of itself, and your blog just put it’s warm message in front of hundreds of thousands, (including me) and counting, new sets of eyes. We never know where we will make a difference, and when we do, it is a moving experience. Congratulations and well done.

  9. Amazing…and I have many of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems on my blog, but nothing like that has EVER happened to me. I’m pretty anonymous and insignificant and that’s a good thing for me. But you both, you and Naomi, deserve such fame. 🙂

  10. OMG I’m one thrilled with this piece – thrilled to hear the Arabic language, thrilled to know the elder is cared for and met with grace, thrilled to know the creative and poetic lives on disguised as ordinary, thrilled over apple juice and little girls and hand holding, this all the best I have read in a while AND I just had 3 days of depth at the Global Summit in San Francisco so , …. I’ve already been having a delicious multi cultural soul ride , thank you for keeping it going – Whewww – LOVE is where the real power still resides, money and prestige only the means to spread it around ! <3 keep going with the beauty and truth and sweetness – I believe we'll make it like this!

    1. Hi Charlotte. Thank you. I never imagined that this shared of Naomi’s work would light up so many fellow humans. What an inspiration it has been to see all of the traffic and the wonderful comments.

  13. Oh David, don’t undersell yourself. “My role? Cut, paste and hit PUBLISH” is known as curating. It’s a new profession, and has been behind the news media changes.
    So, bask in the glory. For now, anyway. When you do this the second time, you’ll be on your way to being another Huffington and can have the honor of disproving Warhol.
    Vincent

      1. It’s quite frightening to live zen-like, and let forces out of your control guide you. Ultimately, they’re the forces that truly drive our lives. The choice is whether to find the place of quiet fearlessness take hold and descend into joy, or if we’ll let fear grab hold and grant anxiety free reign. Or something like that.

        I’m pleased to have discovered you today.

  15. WMS (and this is for Mimi and Michael). SO excited for you, pal, and I can say “I knew him when…” You do a phenomenal job on this blog and I know I’m not alone in saying that it’s an essential part of

  18. I’m not surprised it was that story. In a world where all we seem to hear about is intolerance and hate towards others and each other, we gravitate towards, we CRAVE stories of love and togetherness. Because that is where we want to be, where, in our nature, we are supposed to be. And you, my friend, are taking us there. So, in addition to saying, Congratulations!, I can say, I knew you when…….😀

  23. I’m in the autograph line too, David, so people believe me when I say I knew you back then and always enjoyed reading your blog. Well deserved fame for both of you, enjoy the ride! It can last much longer than you thought. Btw,can I take your picture?

  24. I read this the other day, late, and then didn’t make it back to chime in, but I just love that this happened and that it was you and that it was this story!! What a wild and amazing ride for all the best reasons! So so cool!

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