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UM: Who We Are
Posted by
Dr. D
,
17 September 2012
·
413 views
We come here as strangers and expose our thoughts and feelings with abandon. Somehow there is safety in distance and where faces belong to imagination or a random image in the Rouge’s Gallery. We form friendships based upon words and sometimes those words take the form of action to expose a caring human. We are compelled to feel by the pain of others and by some cyber miracle, we find shelter in each other’s opinions.
There are many like me, of that I am certain. Those lost within themselves needing to know that something about them is significant in the mind of someone. We sit in our corners of the world, some in darkness, some alone and feeling hollow, some seeking only entertainment, others knowledge. We send our thoughts over the winds until they find a home in monitors across the globe. We hide behind electrical impulses and the maze of micro chips and even invent ourselves a name. We confess and lie, opine and criticize, object and scold and pretend it all has meaning; that I will go to bed a better person or not be so quite alone.
Monitors watch us through our cyber universe like vigilantes of a jealous god of communication. We testify to the existence of ghosts, we dissect religion until it struggles to be recognized. We purge or praise politics and tell of discs across the midnight sky. We publish our creativity and marvel at mysteries defying all our effort. We are the scientists, theologians, astronomers, historians, moralists, atheists and critics all. We unashamedly open our hearts and minds like weathered books and know that we can push a button and announce who we are to the world. Yet we also know that we can click the entire community into our past and never go back, just as we have done to so many places in our lives.
We come here, and stay here, because we are made noble by our anonymity. We are heard in a world where no one listens. We are united in the cause of sharing and we bring the gifts of laughter, hope and empathy. We reach out and though we cannot touch, we embrace. We move toward one another on the wings of wires and learn to feel that we are not quite so alone
We are citizens of a better place and we have made it so.
There are many like me, of that I am certain. Those lost within themselves needing to know that something about them is significant in the mind of someone. We sit in our corners of the world, some in darkness, some alone and feeling hollow, some seeking only entertainment, others knowledge. We send our thoughts over the winds until they find a home in monitors across the globe. We hide behind electrical impulses and the maze of micro chips and even invent ourselves a name. We confess and lie, opine and criticize, object and scold and pretend it all has meaning; that I will go to bed a better person or not be so quite alone.
Monitors watch us through our cyber universe like vigilantes of a jealous god of communication. We testify to the existence of ghosts, we dissect religion until it struggles to be recognized. We purge or praise politics and tell of discs across the midnight sky. We publish our creativity and marvel at mysteries defying all our effort. We are the scientists, theologians, astronomers, historians, moralists, atheists and critics all. We unashamedly open our hearts and minds like weathered books and know that we can push a button and announce who we are to the world. Yet we also know that we can click the entire community into our past and never go back, just as we have done to so many places in our lives.
We come here, and stay here, because we are made noble by our anonymity. We are heard in a world where no one listens. We are united in the cause of sharing and we bring the gifts of laughter, hope and empathy. We reach out and though we cannot touch, we embrace. We move toward one another on the wings of wires and learn to feel that we are not quite so alone
We are citizens of a better place and we have made it so.
I've actually found that quite a few are afraid of openly expressing themselfs for fear of being ridiculed in the manner they have witnessed it done to others who have expressed beliefs similiar to their own.
I realize there are definitely members who encompass the sentiments you present above. Unfortunately, there are also many who do not. And there are many who believe they do, but they fail to realize they only do so when welcoming others who fall in line with their own beliefs.
When dealing with someone who doesn't share the same viewpoint however, they toss all these kind sentiments out the window and prefer to "go on the attack" as opposed to continuing to treat these people with kindness and respect.
I won't deny that I may have fallen victim to behaving in such manner at times myself, but I can also state that I make a conscious effort not to do so as much as possible.
And the times that I have behaved in a poor manner, I will usually PM the member involved and apologize, or let it be known through the forums that I may have over reacted and attempt not to do so in further discussions I may have with the individual.
But anyways, those were just my thoughts. What you wrote was very well written and thought out.