Torn Apart, Fix Me Jesus

On this rainy day in SF, I slipped and fell on my way to renew my visitor’s parking permit, mere feet from my car.  I skinned my knee — no worse than that — but also have a clean tear across the pant there.
I almost went home and changed, but then I realized that not only do people go out in public like that wearing pants with torn knees, but that I used to all the time, and I believe Dan does not own a single pair of untattered pants.
Inspired yet torn, Belle and I went to the Transportation Authority and had an easy and effortless experience, despite the fact that when I tell people I have to go to the DMV (technically it’s the MTA), they are more sympathetic than if I told them I’d just lost a close relative.
One of the up-sides of my coaching these days is a re-examination of the value of the personal call.
Obviously, I still talk to people on the phone, but not so much as I used to, and really only with my very closest friends.
The major reason is, of course, the incredible convenience of the Inter Web.
But there is a real downside to that, both personally and professionally.
If you graphed my phone time, it would definitely be in a steady decline from post-college onward.  It just felt normal to have 20, 30 minute conversations with a few different friends every day.  And if you just felt like casually reconnecting with someone the choice was either to call them or write them a letter.  There was no midway means of contact.
Two weeks ago, I vowed to make as many phone calls as possible (sort of) and today I started the plan.
I had a delightful chat with my former book editor, the one from YOGA IN BED (published in 2005) and YOGA FOR SUITS (2006).
It’s been about 5 years or so since we connected, but in 20 minutes we established lots of fun ties and she gave me some great suggestions and ideas even though she’s shifted careers a bit and gone freelance.
With friends, it’s even trickier, not just because they’re increasingly scattered, but also because I feel semi-connected to them through the Face Place.
For example, one of my best buddies is my friend Tamer and he was out-of-town when I was in NYC,  although I did get to see his wonderful wife and newborn son (I take credit for more or less being the Angelic Force that started things in motion).  I keep “meaning to call” him to check in but end up just looking at his facebook pics instead.
There can of course be something a little aggressive, even overly-aggressive about the sales or business call, and that’s why all those marketers insist on it.  It’s harder to say, “No” to a real person and pretty easy to ignore an email.  In fact, you can easily insist you never got the email (“It went to my spam file”) but there’s not really a conversational equivalent (“I’m not aware you’re speaking to me right now”) that’s non-psychotic.
Anyway, I’m so inspired to make a gazillion phone calls tomorrow (and beyond), to both business contacts and my dearest friends.
And somehow this ties together — in more ways than I can figure, but including that Katey, Tamer’s wife and my good friend, and I last saw Alvin Ailey’s REVELATIONS together (we are both obsessed and pretty much see it a few times every year) + Clark last night said one of his birthday themes which happens to be one of my favorite moments in REVELATIONS (“I Wanna Be Ready”) + there’s frankly NOTHING our civilization has produced that is more beautiful than FIX ME, JESUS…
I love taking people every year to share REVELATIONS, and so maybe if you’ve never seen it before, you’ll come with me Christmas 2012.
P.S. I LOVE the first comment on the youtube video: “the first time i saw this piece performed i sat in my seat and cried like a baby. very moving. yes this 6′ 2″ , 230 lb man cried like a baby. when ever i get a chance to see this company, i run to buy tickets.”
Me, too…(both running to buy tickets AND crying like a baby)