Tag Archives: thank you

thank you thank you ©alexashersearsI love telling stories - with a pen and paper, a keyboard or a camera. And I was truly honored to have learned yesterday that I was named a BlogHer Voice of The Year for my post my post, Cancer, Red Balloons and Beauty in the Details. In words and pictures, it celebrates people I’ve lost. Honors those who are still here.

Hating cancer either way. In any way.

I thank BlogHer for creating this wonderful event and the judges for what I can only imagine was a huge job, requiring a Costco-sized stock of Kleenex to tackle - those entries are an emotional roller coaster.

I’ve written about the power of the VOTY Keynote on more than one occasion. How I watch the blogosphere leveling the playing field in tremendous ways and allowing for great voices to be found beyond the shelves of all the bookstores I used to wander in Los Angeles until they disappeared Amazon. That’s how I felt as I photographed last year’s keynote. At the time I wrote:

“The Lost Generation headed for Paris. Perhaps the next literary circle is headed online. Maybe it’s already there.”

I laughed and cried as I listened to Eden and Cecily, Alexandra and Momo, and many more - friends and strangers, and strangers who’ve become friends, gathered upon that stage to share their hearts, their images and their words. To answer The $64000 Question, “What is a blogger?”

Yesterday, as I congratulated my friend Dresden, a VOTY honoree and a keynote reader, E.M. Forster’s words, the words that I began this very blog with “Only connect..” seemed to come full circle.

Last August, at BlogHer in San Diego, I ran back to the hotel from the convention center to grab a camera lens I needed for the keynote. The hotel in San Diego was massive, which I suppose is the point when you’re convention center-adjacent. There were several towers in the hotel and a ton of elevators - a bit like Vegas with an ocean breeze. I got into a crowded elevator at the hotel and heard someone say, “Alex? You’re Alex? I’m supposed to give you a hug from Vee.”

Vee is a photographer - a blogger in Sydney who lost her husband to cancer. Together with my friend Eden, we honored his memory on the anniversary of his passing with an art project. From Sydney to LA, we wanted to be sure his life was celebrated that day. Eden wrote a post about the experience.

A post she was about to read at the Voice of the Year keynote.

Vee wasn’t able to come from Sydney to San Diego, but she’d asked an American friend who would be there to give me a hug if she saw me. And that friend was Dresden. (Connect the dots, lalalalala…)

I wrote to Dresden yesterday, tweeting how amazing it was, friends who met en route to the VOTY keynote to hear a mutual friend read her VOTY piece now celebrating the Voices of a new year.

The next time someone asks me, “why blog?” I won’t have to think twice before I explain it. This. This right here. All of these people. All of these voices. This is why I blog.

turn it up to eleven: loud shirt day

23 Replies

A new dress doesn’t get you anywhere; it’s the life you’re living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later. - Diana Vreeland

When I first got word from Mrs.Woog about Loud Shirt Day last August, two thoughts crossed my mind. One, it was a brilliant campaign. Wearing loud and bright clothing to “show your support for deaf children.” My second thought was, Why don’t we have such a thing in the US? The concept of a day that gives deaf children a voice just seems like it should happen everywhere on earth. I was a Loud Shirt supporter without a country, but I marked my calendar for October 21st, knowing I’d wear something loud in honor of the youngest Woog, Jack.

For as long as I can possibly remember, my family has been involved with support and research of dyslexia and learning differences. When I was little, they were labeled as disabilities not differences. They’ve been properly renamed. We need to celebrate our differences. They remind us that this isn’t a one size fits all world. And we are better off because of the variety of shapes and sizes.

As Loud Shirt Day approached, I grew frustrated that October 21st would not be filled with a celebration of crazy patterns and neon colors in the City of Angels. So, I decided to ask my fellow Americans to take part in a virtual Loud Shirt Day. Asked them to help celebrate Jack and the Woog family and all the families like his. And they did. Family and friends, including a few right here in the blogosphere (Maegan, Fadra and Peter).

I want to see Loud Shirt Day in the US. Until then, we’re bringing the US to Jack. xo a.

Click to find more information about Loud Shirt Day in Australia and Canada.