Aw, shucks! [shuffle shuffle] I didn’t mean it.

I’m actually grinning like a dope and glowing with pride, which is why I have to make jokes. Thank you. I’m so glad you find something worth reading in my stories. That makes me happy and gives honor to Grace and her memory.

Thanks, also, for spotlighting some of the amazing talent here on Medium. From my short experience (I’ve been here about four months), the Medium community is rare on the Internet, maybe even the only one of its kind. With doors wide open to any and all willing to bare their hearts, rather than devolving into another site for snarky trolls, the Medium community raises the quality of the discourse by first surrounding writers with compassion and encouragement, and then it asks all of us to be more insightful, more honest, and more bold, raising the bar. The result is each of us is stretched to become a better writer, and Medium becomes a better place for writers. That is not a result somehow scripted into the structure of the site. Rather, it is an honest, personal expression of good and caring people, like you, Lon Shapiro. Thank you.