What a Life!

The other day I came across a blog where the blogger commented that her blog had replaced an office of co-workers which she doesn’t have (she works from home). I would like to second that opinion.

The thing about the web is that it allows you to meet people from all walks of life and from all sorts of places around the globe.

I’ve met people who have many of the same weird idiosyncrasies that I have. It’s fun to know I am not alone.

I’ve met people with whom I have common interests but also with whom I have very differing ideas on certain topics. I’ve learned that such differences really don’t matter so much and that great friendships can develop in spite of those differences.

I’ve met people who have stepped out of the mainstream in certain areas where I have as well. Everyone else really isn’t doing [it]. I’ve come to hesitate less when I want to do something a certain way and I wonder if I’m the only one doing it that way.

I’ve met people from walks of life, from religious faiths whom I never thought I had anything in common. I’ve discovered there are ways in which I relate to them so very well. It’s softened the judgments I make in real life, though I still maintain that stereotypes come from somewhere.

Being at home alone with children all day can put quite a hamper on one’s confidence that they can hold an intelligent conversation with other adults. The internet serves to bridge that gap in many ways.

You can spend time reading blogs where people post about things you care about, things you have in common. I must confess, in all the years I spent around other people, both in school and in an office, while I did have friends with whom I had such conversations, such conversations were much fewer and further between.

I learned to knit because of the internet.

I’ve gotten better at taking pictures, thanks to the internet.

I’ve learned so many things on account of the internet.

And while it is somewhat impersonal – after all, it’s just me and a computer sitting in a room – at the same time, it is ever so much more personal. I’ve read things on people’s blogs – and even said things on my own – that I might never have said in real life. [I might have wanted to say them, but I wouldn’t have known who to say them to so I would have kept quiet.]

The internet is a place for me to explore silly ideas that cross my mind. For instance, has anyone else made Salt Peanuts with 1824 wool? At 9:30 p.m. in the evening when my husband is laying tile and has a problem, I can get online and do a search for tutorials and find possible solutions for his little problem – no trip to Menards needed.

Sometimes I actually wonder how anyone survived prior to the internet. Kind of like electricity. I mean, I know it was done and all. But what bare, stark lives we must have led.

At the same time, the internet can become much like tv. It’s not a real experience. You can watch people go fishing, but it isn’t the same as going fishing yourself. Hearing someone else’s highlights from their trip can make your’s seem dull in comparison, though you can make your’s sound just as grand when you share just the highlights. Real life still needs to be lived.

But real life can also be so much richer in so many ways. There are so many ideas I find on the internet that my life is so much richer for knowing. Knitting. Homeshooling. Photography. Attachment parenting. I might have stumbled through things okay, but my experiences in real life have been so much richer, thanks to the ideas I learned about online.

This month is National Blog Posting Month NaBloPoMo – or something like that. While real life has not cooperated with my participating literally in such a thing and I am one who writes more according to the muse than some blogging schedule, it has made me think again how much I enjoy writing on my blog and reading other’s blogs.

It’s the watercooler I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Thanks for stopping by.