October 16, 2003

I succumb to a sense of virtual community.

I'm a hands-on person. I like to cook, knit, make things, re-make things, hug, touch. Even though blogging requires my hands on the keyboard, it's not the same feeling for me as the other hands-on stuff that I do. There's too much physical distance between my reaching out and that sensory-deprived cybertouch.

But I find myself joining in Gary Turner's (who lives in the British Isles) campaign to help out Chris Locke (who lives in Colorado) and is a very very close virtual friend of my Blog Sister Jeneane Sessum (who lives in Georgia.)

So I bought the $20 Save RageBoy 2004 calendar, even though I already have a perfectly good calendar that I bought in the dollar store last month; even though I have gotten in Chris' virtual face more often than not lately; even though I could think of a dozen things that cost $20 that I'd like to buy for my grandson; even though…….

I am remembering at this moment my first communication with Chris Locke -- an email I sent to him several years ago (even before Cluetrain was on sale) after my son, b!X put me on a "Six Degrees of Separation" list/site on which Chris Locke put him. I had no idea who Chris Locke, was, so I sent him an email saying I was b!X’s mom and was wondering who Chris Locke was. Locke sent me back a one-sentence reply: "I didn’t know b!X had a mother."

Not only does b!X have a mother, but this mother constantly struggles with a tendency to want to mother the world, and that includes Chris Locke, whose ability to write like this -- I think -- should be nurtured and encouraged and supported.

I can't mother the world. I certainly can't mother Locke. But I can, and did, buy the calendar that I will always keep as a hands-on reminder of the virtual community that I’m a part of right now.

Namaste, bubala.

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Old Comments (1)

  1. r@d@r on 17 Oct 2003

    yeah, me too.

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  1. Connecting the Dots on 17 Oct 2003

    It's all about connections and connecting. The net, while driven by technology, continually proves that what it's really about is connections. People connecting to other people. We make friends. Some we meet in real life. Some we never meet....