Have you ever been recognized by surprise? What’s the difference between keeping a low profile and being anonymous? And when is it wiser to fly under the radar?

Way back in the 60s Andy Warhol famously proclaimed that sometime in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. If he were alive today, one could imagine him flipping that around and saying that we would each get our 15 minutes of true anonymity.

Few of us are fortunate enough, (or careful enough), to leave no identifiable footprints online. Most of us are rather loose with content that tells a story of who we are or what we do. The nature of modern media makes it oh-so-easy to share ourselves, and the nature of friends and family relationships means people treat social media like a utility.

And this is to say nothing of the data harvested that cleverly puts advertisements in front of us almost as if the algorithm is reading our mind. But anyway. I digress.

Usually when you’re walking down the street and you hear your name shouted out at random your head swivels and you expect to see a friend or a relative perhaps. Someone that you know at the very least.

Unless you’re me. (Or anyone else whose photo is spread far and wide). Over the past decade now I’ve sent out several hundred of these weekly newsletters with some sort of a selfie slapped front and center to many more thousands of people than I could possibly know.

Just yesterday I was walking by a sidewalk café in Berkeley when I hear my name called out and I see a friendly looking woman dining with her husband and waving at me. In my mind I’m thinking “Do I know you?” when she says “I’m on your list!” Then it all comes clear to me and I stop and say hello.

Turns out, of course, that the recognition is one way, and she’s been receiving Monday Love for some years now. (Hi again!) Whenever this happens, I always get that little rush of gratitude that someone out there is actually reading this thing!

I took a moment to chat and explained how Isabelle, my delightful companion in nearly every photo posted here these past four years, first connected with me under similar circumstances.

She had somehow signed up for my mailing list and had been receiving this newsletter for at least a year or so before she finally got around to coming to Dance Jam, (the Berkeley event I was hosting prior to Covid). Apparently she had no idea the two were connected, and was under the impression that “the Monday Love guy” lived somewhere like New York or LA.

So when she saw me spinning records behind the turntables at Dance Jam, she gave me a curious look of recognition that I promptly followed up on, and the rest, as they say, is history (and happily ever after

The upshot of my thoughts on this is that some of you out there must really appreciate my mundane Monday musings, so it behooves me to hereby ask you a favor. If indeed you’re a regular reader who finds occasional value in these notes, ask yourself if you have a friend or two who should be on my list and nudge them to sign up! (the form is on our homepage).

And with that, I thank you and leave you to either stand up and be recognized or blend into the woodwork as you prefer.

Much love till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine