1000 Monkeys Later

In all honesty, there are no monkeys involved in this blog post, although on two levels, I have been fascinated with the number 1000 regarding the unseen masses all day.
Today was a indeed wild ride beginning with my first MindBodyGreen article being published online this morning.
I didn’t know it was coming out exactly today, so it was a pleasant surprise when I received the email in the morning announcing my article’s online emergence.
And I even had to admit to my morning Skype yoga client that I would have to periodically check–in during her lesson because the number of shares (Facebook Likes + Tweets + Google + Pinterest etc.) kept increasing exponentially and was too compelling to resist.
Indeed, I think about 200 people shared the article during our 60 minute session, which was fascinating to watch, a kind of low-grade viral moment.
And right now, as of this writing, we’re at 978 shares and I’m wondering if we’ll break 1,000 by midnight.
In other numerical news involving 1,000 people, when I opened my Constant Contact account to see how many had opened my last email blast (the service has actually given me one of their awards for my apparently incredibly high open rate), I saw that the 1,000th person to open my last email blast was someone I’ve been thinking about quite often lately.  Someone who has been surprisingly AWOL regarding communications, and yet for whom I have a special fondness on many levels.
There’s no major story that I can relate here –– no falling out, no big drama or series of events, not even really any awkwardness … just non-response from someone I genuinely care about but isn’t on my speed dial, or vice versa.
Still, it’s weighed on my mind and, in fact, I had just had a conversation with Adrian last week about how I was disheartened that X never got back to me about two minor gifts (gestures really) I had sent in the last year or so.
And then through the miracle of my mailing list service’s technology, I saw that X was the 1,000th person to open the eblast about my novel … and (not only that), but that X actually clicked on the link to watch my book video trailer.
[As an aside, does it count as stalking if technically it’s you checking to see if they are watching you?]
And even though I’d still like to receive the “Congratulations” email re: the novel or the “Thanks for that perfect ___ you sent me” one, at least I know that X was one of the thousand –– in fact, the 1,00th person –– who opened my email.
And  –– as of this writing –– 982 people have now shared my article (four more since I started writing … although I have no idea how many have actually read it versus sharing it and I’m drawing the line re: asking MindBodyGreen if they can tell me that info).
Someday, of course, I may be at the Neil Gaiman/Kim Kardashian level of success where the expectation is that 1 million people hang on your every tweet … but that day isn’t here … at least just not quite yet.
And so I will settle for breaking 1,000 shares with my article in a day, and my 1,000th reader of my eblast being someone I genuinely wanted to reconnect with.
Stay tuned for more multiples ahead.

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