Over the last few days the internet has allowed me to be in contact with people I probably would not otherwise have reached. I appreciate it! Here’s a rundown.

Just yesterday I was reading a book about the Buddhism by a professor at Fairfield University, and came across a passage where I wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to say. I emailed him to ask about it, and he not even an hour later he’d replied with a long, thoughtful email that was very helpful.

About a week before I’d come across this article in the New York Times archives about Ralph Lord Roy, who was described recently in the Times as follows: “a retired United Methodist minister living in Southington, Conn., was part of the Clergy Freedom Ride from Washington to Tallahassee, Fla., in 1961; the following year in Albany, Ga., he was one of the leaders of the largest group of clergy members jailed at one time in United States history.” A civil rights hero, in short, who recalled his experience recently in the times in this article (definitely worth a read). The archival article describing his arrest for a sit-in in 1961 mentions he was the pastor of a church on my street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I was keen to know more, so I found his address online and wrote him a letter (old-fashioned), and he wrote a very nice letter back. Turns out the Times was mistaken; he was pastor of the Greene Avenue Church in Bushwick. All the same, a lovely interaction with a lovely man.
The last instance I had in mind was more typical–just a freshman year friend reemerging through facebook, thirteen years of no contact eclipsed instantly. Thanks internet, it continues to be interesting.