10/25/2026
Some connections are simply treasures of a lifetime. In November 1999, I was flying from Nashville to San Francisco, connecting through Atlanta. On that second flight was a German family traveling with their young son. As we made our final approach into San Francisco, I could tell they had some questions about what to expect when they landed.
So, I struck up a conversation with them in German.
They were delighted to find someone who spoke their language. We talked about navigating the airport, getting around San Francisco, and I scribbled down a few places they absolutely needed to see while visiting. Before we parted ways, I handed them my business card and suggested we stay in touch.....and we did.
Remember, this was 1999. The early days of email. AOL. Dial-up internet. Long before social media connected everyone to everyone. We became email pen pals.....then friends.....exchanging messages and stories across the Atlantic over the years.
Eventually, as life sometimes does, we lost touch.....until August of this year.
A handwritten letter arrived in my mailbox from Germany.....three pages, filled with memories, kindness, and Love. Inside was something extraordinary. A printed copy of our very first email exchange from November 1999......AND the original business card I’d handed them on that airplane nearly 27 years ago. They had kept both all these years. 🤗
I can’t begin to describe the joy of opening that envelope. Of course, I immediately sent them a pinksocks gift box. And today, their son, now a grown man, sent me a photograph of his dad, Ingolf, wearing his pinksocks on the beautiful island of Rügen, off Germany’s Baltic coast.
Rügen is famous for its magnificent white chalk cliffs, immortalized more than 200 years ago by German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich in his painting Chalk Cliffs on Rügen.....a place where nature, beauty, and the human experience come together.
And there was Ingolf, standing on those beautiful cliffs, wearing his pinksocks, sharing a little Love across the world.....what a gift! 🎁
Here’s the thing.....this connection began 16 years before pinksocks even existed. No movement. No mission. No social media. No agenda.....just a few human beings on an airplane who took a moment to see one another.
I've said it for years…..on airplanes, on trains, standing in line at the grocery store or the post office, wherever life takes us, we have these little opportunities to connect. To look someone in the eyes. To smile. To say, “it’s good to see u.” We never know what might grow from those few seconds of kindness.
A conversation becomes a friendship. A friendship becomes a memory. And sometimes, 27 years later, that memory comes back to remind us just how beautiful this human experience can be. THAT's what pinksocks is about.
Not the pinksocks themselves......never the pinksocks themselves. It’s about the people. The connections. The Love we give and receive along the way. I consider this friendship one of the true treasures and joys of my life. And to think, it all began with a simple conversation on an airplane in 1999.
Never miss an opportunity to connect with another human being.....you just never know where that connection might take you.
The world is full of good! When you believe it, you see it. Keep doing that! It's good to see YOU! 🌍💖✨
