Posts Tagged ‘Brainstorms’
Enormous Void
Since I no longer work for a living, yesterday’s New Year’s Day holiday was no different than a typical Wednesday for me. Hoping to pay some respect to the festive occasion, I rustled up a college football game on television to entertain me in fine holiday fashion. That is when I unexpectedly witnessed a brief statement of news from a sports announcer.
Their “BREAKING NEWS” moment revealed to me there had been a terrorist attack in New Orleans, and it was causing a 24-hour delay in the playoff game scheduled to happen in the stadium there. Not the most joyful start for a new year.
The (peaceful) void in our home due to Asher’s week with a trainer has been filled after Cyndie and I picked him up on Tuesday. The rabbits and lackadaisical pigeons better take note that the sheriff’s back in town. I’m sure we will have plenty of opportunities to practice the “Leave IT!” command in the days ahead.
There was also a void in the latest jigsaw puzzle I assembled that had me overthinking many of my decisions about which piece went where.
After the initial build, there comes some sectional rearranging, which then permits the opening of a second bag of pieces to complete a surprise middle. Good fun in a hand-me-over gift from my sister, Judy. My hat’s off to the artist who created the multitude of entertaining details and strategically repeated portions that allow the image to be manipulated like the last page of a MAD magazine.
Ultimately, however, the most enormous void I am experiencing is the result of a member of my virtual community, Brainstorms MetaNetwork, having ended his life between Christmas and New Year’s. That was such shockingly unexpected information to read on a typical pass through new posts Tuesday morning.
I never met him in real life, but we’ve been hanging out in the same discussion spaces online for more than a couple of decades. It definitely strikes a nerve knowing he dealt with depression and some stressful life situations. He has left a lot of folks with challenges of grief, and it has currently tarnished the start of the new year for us.
I keep seeing that hole in the puzzle I built and thinking that is what our virtual community looks like this week.
I’m sure the families and friends of victims of the incident in New Orleans early yesterday morning are feeling even larger holes in their lives today.
It feels like there isn’t enough love to fill the void, but what better response could I give?
Join me, because we can conjure love from out of nowhere by simply thinking it into existence and then feeling it in our hearts. On top of that, when we are focused on love, and manifesting it into being, there is a simultaneous absence of hate occurring. Less hate, more love. Send it! Feed the world what it truly needs.
There is a tremendous void deserving of our attention, and it is within the reach of all of our hearts.
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Paired Photos
Yesterday morning I was taking extra pictures to chronicle our morning routine for a photo exercise occurring on my virtual community, Brainstorms. Members all over the globe were capturing their lives in images for four days and posting them to provide a simultaneous glimpse of our varied locals and activities.
Of course, mine involved horses and I came up with two sets of images that work best when shown as pairs.
It was a cold morning that was going to become a warm day, so… Blankets on / blankets off.
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I then stepped up beside Light and was taking a picture of her gobbling pellets from a feed pan. She turned to see what I was doing.
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There’s something about a horse’s nose that is just so great up close in a photograph. For all we know, that could be a moose!
Don’t tell her I said that.
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Unidentified Obfuscation
It starts to get hard when you reach the point of not being able to hear yourself think. The little boy in me who has never grown up occasionally shows up to ask me why I’m so quick to forget about the bliss of being four or five years old and getting lost in some harmless pursuit. The answer is always the same.
It’s not that I’m quick to forget. I’m just slow to remember. Present-day life tends to do that to a person.
An awful lot of years have passed since I sprawled on the floor making truck sounds with my mouth as I rolled Matchbox cars along the borders of our large Persian rug.
The recent stress of the day-job continues unabated amidst a boom of business that started at the same time as the global pandemic and its havoc on world economies. It is proving to be a brain-scrambler of significant magnitude.
Last night the ranch received an impressive sample of the remnants of Tropical Storm Cristobol in the form of wave after wave of soaking rain. I think it might make the landscape pond overflow. [wry smile]
We are hoping that the deluge won’t drown any of the plants in Cyndie’s gardens.
She served up another delicious salad last night with all the greens coming from plants she is growing. This time I remembered to take a picture.
The asparagus isn’t ours. They’re store-bought. I can only hope someday our wisps of skinny stalks will someday reach such mammoth proportions.
Much to our surprise, rainstorms seem to improve our connection for Zoom meetings, and last night I was able to participate in conversations with an international collection of members of my beloved virtual community, Brainstorms. (Ward, it was a treat to see and hear you!). For almost an hour my connection flashed instability only three times, but never once dropped my connection entirely. That was a first.
The normal mode for Zoom gatherings by way of our cell connection out here in the countryside is to freeze up frequently and get dropped/reconnected multiple times until I give up and sign off.
The last time Cyndie was in a Zoom meeting during wild weather, she enjoyed similar success. The signal must like having all those raindrops in the air. Who’d uh guessed?
The little boy in me would have, probably.
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Brainstorming Again
Why do I Brainstorm(s)?
One of the primary reasons is that Brainstorms uses Caucus. My affection for Caucus, and my interest in seeing it being well-used, is how I learned that Brainstorms existed. My early experience with Caucus conferencing was on a small scale. The number of participants was not large enough to maintain any momentum of active conversation.
I tried creating a few conferences for my own purposes using Caucus, but none of my efforts ultimately solved the problem of attracting a critical mass. Much as I loved the software, I had only ever witnessed it being under-used. When I questioned whether I would ever witness the platform being used to the fullest, I was pointed to Howard Rheingold’s Brainstorms, as an example.
There, I found a membership that included people from around the world. I was presented with more conversation than I could process. And, in a short amount of time, I realized Howard’s idea of raising the bar of civil, adult conversation was being lived out by an amazing collection of brilliant and creative minds.
On Brainstorms, I learn what is going on in other parts of the world, often, as it happens. I consider myself one of the people who read more than they post, and what I read causes me to think. I am inspired to think about my own opinions and consider other perspectives. Oftentimes, I contemplate whether I have my thoughts organized enough to post a contribution to the conversations. Whether I end up writing, or not, I have been led to consider my opinion.
My world has been expanded by my membership in Brainstorms. I have attended gatherings of members in Chicago and San Francisco. I have discovered a kindred spirit and true friend in Portugal, and traveled across the ocean to commune with him, in person. I have exercised my ability to communicate in writing and taken advantage of a vehicle for sharing my poetry, prose, and photographs.
Brainstorms is akin to having hundreds of pen-pals. Brainstorms gives me an invisible friend with multiple personalities who informs my real life and listens to what I have to say, day or night. Brainstorms can be habit forming, but if a habit is healthy…
I still believe there are a limited subset of people who align with whatever it is that makes conversing online in a community of people you don’t already know, attractive. It’s not for everybody. But I am forever grateful for the vehicle of the internet and Caucus software, and that there is a core group of other like-minded souls who continue to feed my passion to commune online at Howard’s amazing creation, Brainstorms.
Relative Something 