Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Monday Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers, Phamily & Dawn Patrol, Bigots, Fascinating People & Triggeratti and all you wonderful ADD Irregulars & Wanderers of the WSN!

The best of the internet and its promise happened this weekend. Back in the early 90's was the promise of connecting people with one another in ways that were previously thought impossible. Individuals that had not met in person, have not had the opportunity to measure, assess and come to know one another could actual form real relationships that would lead to friendships. That was the promise of the internet, the exposure to the depth and breathe of humanity. I thought it was going to be a gathering of the exceptional and the chance to meet so many amazing people from around the globe. There is indeed the opportunity to be exposed to the exceptional even if you may never meet them, and their is also the encounter with the numberless normies whom you have a far greater chance of meeting. As a barely above normie, I can testify to that. Like attracts like in a good and common way of being human. There are so many people to enjoy and appreciate than I had imagined. Sadly there are far more disturbed and maladjusted people than you might encounter in normal life. Emboldened by anonymity and safely ensconced behind their screens they act with a brazen attitude that would have publicly earned them an ass-kicking. Such were the 90's and early 00's. Something have not changed much.

While time often determines the worth of a friendship or familial tie, that is often a false or simplistic assumption. The depth of vulnerability, the openness of self, the mutual respect and patience given to one another is what really determines the worth of a relationship. While families are meant to be the first experience of that, they often aren't. Families have a horrible tendency to repeat broken habits and poor methods of building or stressing the bonds that unite us. That causes so much stress and sorrow for individuals because many members eventually come to know it could be different. The desire for individuality and personhood often rages against conformity and established pecking order. Who we are should not come at the expense of who I am, conversely who I am has to have some give and take to be part of the greater WE. When there is trust, respect and vulnerability (not necessarily agreement) that dance and tension of I & We can work surprisingly well. No duh, Padre!! Spelling out the obvious helps my clarity of thought if nothing else. 😁

Many consider the internet and social media in particular to be a false reality since there is often no way to confirm the person who are meeting. Some disparage community formed in these environs, ironic if they happen to be acknowledging that while utilizing social media, and only consider meeting in person to be "real". Meeting in person is a great confirmation, but even without it community can happen and friendships can form in this most fragile of mediums. That was the hope of the 90's for many of us and I think that this most current chapter of the internet as expressed by the Locals template helps facilitate that. Well that is enough rambling for a Monday, thanks for indulging me if you read along this far. Happy Monday Digital Neighbors!!!

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. - J. R. R. Tolkien

Autumn Red Barn by Debra and Dave Vanderlaan