The Internet did.
Since I first went online back in 97, my life has changed very much for the better. I discovered that there were other people out there who thought as I did and also had had similar experiences to me. I felt less alone as a result.
All the travelling I have done has been the direct result of the 'net. I first drove on mainland Europe because of the 'net. I drove to Barcelona to see some Lhasa Apso there and from there to Denmark where I brought home amle Lhasa and later a female. I also met people who are now firends in Sweden, Denamrk, Germany, Belgium, Holland and France.
I have made some good friends. Only once did meeting up with someone did not work out well at all and I have no idea why. The person seemed to dislike me from the very outset, treated me with disdain. Unfortunately, I had already arranged a 2 day vist with them so went thru with it. A very odd and uncomfortable experience.
However, I met 4 other people as a direct result and have become good friends with them. Lia and Lui, Jane and Gordon and Diana. We spoent Xmas last year with them.
Then there is the knowledge the 'net provides. It really has expanded my own knoweldge of all sorts. It also has given me an outlet for my dog and kitting passions.
Above all, and this is the most unexpected thing, healing. Yes, healing. Thru the 'net I have found myself. I have also found a way of expressing myself and at the same time reaching out to other lost and lonely souls. I am no longer either lost or lonely. I know I am not alone.
The down side is that the 'net is rife with religious loonies! ;-0 I have learned much about the USA which I would have preferred not know. There appears to be no separation of state and relgion and the Religous Right there are no different to the Islamic fundies they hate. The USA and the Middle East have much in common and I think we have much to fear from them. Perhaps with this new Ppresident the danger of this fundamentalist evil will lessen. I certainly hope so. No one will be free if they hold sway.
Another long stretch, but hoping to be more regular
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6 comments:
The Internet provides a great source for many of us, doesn't it? After all, I met YOU!
Oh, my. I cringed as an American reading this. The major problem is the loudness and verbosity of these people. We're certainly not all like that. It's that Freedom of Speech thing-some tend to go really over-board with it. Most of the rest of us are pretty much live and let live. Unfortunately, this doesn't get us any press or other media exposure. I read your blog pretty faithfully and enjoy your posts. So you do have a quiet American lurker.
I guess we kind of do America a disservice by being quiet lurkers. I came out of that and campaigned vigorously in the recent Presidential election and yes, I even ran into hatred and prejudice and was shocked at some of the attitudes I came up against. But I also found that these same people had misinformation and were pretty much run-down and near hopeless with our economic situation in the area I live in. We've been a poverty-stricken, over-looked area in our state for more than a decade. And, as in the Middle East, you go for so long without and watch others seem to be gaining without merit, and you keep losing more and more and hatred flares. The passion in the Middle East is probably easily matched by the passions found in the extreme American Right and Left--yes, even the Left can be looney, as I found during the campaign. Wouldn't it be so much a better world if we'd just get over insisting everyone think the same as we do?
Then again, maybe they're better off if they don't think like I do, they'd be pretty befuddled by the hijinks going on in the world right now.
Aw, Colin, we're not ALL bad, are we? There are many in the US who feel exactly as you do, others who feel pretty much as you do and yes, the lunatic fringe which often is more like a lunatic tassle!
But then, where else would our comedians get their material, LOL?
Recently, Arianna Huffington (she of the liberal "Huffington Post" blog) was on a public television station interview. She contends that the internet prevented the kind of nonsense that was rife in the election of 04 - and I tend to agree with her. It's a big planet, and I think the internet shrinks the world, but opens the mind - if you let it!
Wishing you all good things in the year to come,
Your crazy Amerikan friend,
Joan
>>>>>>Above all, and this is the most unexpected thing, healing. Yes, healing. Thru the 'net I have found myself. I have also found a way of expressing myself and at the same time reaching out to other lost and lonely souls. I am no longer either lost or lonely. I know I am not alone. <<<<<<
just to say that I feel like this, too; don't know how or if I'd have managed without it.....and your openness about your feeling and troubles has helped me to face my own.
love
Claire
Living in the Bible Belt in the US as I do, I have to agree with you that the religious Reich - er, right, is scary. But not all of us are like that, Colin. I happen to be happily Pagan, co-existing, commingling and getting on with all manner of Fundies. I haven't been shot or burned at the stake (yet, anyway), although I did have a very odd man in a parking lot try to insist that Jesus had told him to give me a religious tract. I said "No, thanks," he went all red-faced and screechy, declaring that Jesus was going to make me burn in hell (really - there's no graceful segue from "Jesus loves you and wants you to read this" to "JEESUS IS GOING TO BURN YOU!") and I just kept my cool, regarding him with a mildly amused patience, until he embarrassed himself with his behavior to the point where the store manager came out and ordered him off the property.
I've found that if you respond to craziness with calmness, it quickly becomes apparent to everyone just who is the nutter and who is the sane, rational one. There have been many things my country has done over the past eight years that scared the crap out of me, embarrassed me, and thoroughly ticked me off. But we do some cool stuff, too. It's just that our nutters get more attention for being nutters than our sane folk get for being sane and humane.
BTW, I absolutely love Joan's statement: "It's a big planet, and I think the internet shrinks the world, but opens the mind - if you let it!" I may steal that and use it as my sig file!
Thank you Knitwych!
:)
Joan
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