These actual Facebook excerpts between Dale and I prompted me to write the Sacramento News & Review article on "reconnecting. For the most part, I only use Facebook and other social media for my professional work. There's the odd messaging between a few friends but personally I don't engage in the practice. Why I suddenly thought to seek Dale...well, I do believe some higher networking power may have been involved.
Forgot to mention I was crazy about F. Scott in my youth. When we had to read for school and everyone else was nodding off...I was all over his metaphors. Of course, I also loved the Scarlet Letter and all that other traditional stuff. Crazy kid!
Dale and I spoke on the 4th. He didn't use Facebook much (he said) and had happened to go online and found my message. I sent my second Facebook message on the 5th and we also spoke again that day...and the next. But I guess he never checked his Facebook messages again. On December 9th the phone call would come that Dale had passed away. Our moment of reconnection was captured on the pages of Facebook...and the messages are still there for me to read. And every so often I look for Dale's Facebook page and wonder, "Do they have social networking out there, wherever Dale might be?" Perhaps someday our discussion of F. Scott will resume.