FIVE

I was terrified of my oldest sister. She taught me to swim way before age 5, because by then I was swimming laps doing a beautiful American crawl and had nearly perfected a dive from the low board. One day Betty said it was time for the high dive. I was not ready but she was and sometimes I later wondered if she wanted to kill me. At the time all I could do was obey. This was the same sister who made me watch televised baseball games that I hated, mostly because she made me stand at attention, hand over heart, during the National Anthem. In our den. Not at a live game in a stadium but in our den. It struck me as odd that I had to do this while she was languidly parked on the sofa smoking a cigarette but I was too frightened of her to balk. Her every wish my command, I just did whatever I was told.

Back to the HIGH diving board. Probably twelve steps to the top and then a dramatic walk to the end. That was all it needed to be, but halfway up the climb there was my first stomach grabbing sense of mortality and I silently balked by pausing. She, reading me correctly, said absolutely not, no way to come down so just DO IT! Time slowed down at this point as I knew that I was surely going to die that day, whatever that meant, and there was not even time for a "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer. I tried to remember all that she had told me about diving and then properly approached the end of the board. Both feet together, bounce up and away and down. Down indeed, after completing one of the most glorious it-started-as-a-swan-dive-then-turned-pancake-belly-flops of all time. I hit the water with the force of smacking into a brick wall, stunned into paralysis, and began to float to the bottom. There was no "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" moment here but rather a completely third person observer status of the situation. Going down, lots of water, looking at thrashing, plaid-clad half-torsos in the shallow end, wondering if anyone would notice. Then I saw the drain below me growing larger and realized I was nearly at the bottom. There was not a whit of fear-it was just so interesting that I was drowning and that it didn't seem to be such a bad thing. Surrounded by the so-blue, warm and heavily chlorinated June water, and the reflections from people, clothing, lounge chairs-all mixed in the water to wash over me with prisms to die for. Literally. I was really good at holding my breath but it did seem like a long time was passing and I supposed I would fade to black and that was just fine with me.

On the way out of this world, all of a sudden there was a huge amount of turmoil in the water and I felt myself being scooped up by a being that seemed like a dolphin and then up, up to the surface. From death to chaos again, there I was, spread out on a towel, in my brand new yellow bathing suit (one-piece of course), being gawked at and inspected by all, much like one might look at meat or fish before deeming it worthy of purchase. Smiles passed all around after a bit-cheers; she'll live. I wish I could tell you I had one of those amazing tales to tell of my life flashing before me. There wasn't even one. After all, at five years old what could have flashed? Toddling in the front yard, my older sister pinching me just for the hell of it? Throwing food under the table for the dogs and getting caught? Making my grandmother cry because I told her she should not take me out in a boat when she couldn't swim? None of that showed up in the pool; it was all just beautiful serenity and rainbow ribbons of water. And then I lived to dive another day.

Photo Courtesy of Julian Mei

Second Life Friends

These are just a few of the precious friends I have made in Second Life. In a few years I expect you will all have a Second Life of some kind or another. From left to right: "Tita" who knows how to create things out of his brain that are amazing and who has tons of patience; "KFH" aka Kirsty Hawkshaw in Real Life, who is just a wonder on so many levels there is no way to describe her-just let me say again that her presence and spirit gave me grace and a teleport to a new life; "Loverush Pennell," a fine man and close friend who is willing to go shopping on a moment's notice and who is a bright star in his own right as a DJ, producer and generally grand human; then I am on the right, the bumbling, stumbling one who drops in and they all put up with my poor flying, hysterical laughing and whatever is on tap for the times we spend together. Would that you all realize soon that your lives can be ever so much more enhanced by getting your own Second Life!

One more thing-the green picture at the top? A mistake, typical of me at many times, but to go from something like that to being able to take the other pictures? Well, learning occurs throughout our lives, every day, now doesn't it?

More on Second Life

If you think my previous post was nonsense about Second Life ("it's just a stupid game"), just read this Reuters article. Brilliant.

Second Life

Second Life – The World of Ideas

I am 55 years old, which in some circles relegates me to Senior Citizen status, only meaning in practical terms at this point that I get discounts on medications and groceries at the local pharmacy and that I am still ten years away from Medicare benefits. It also means that I am viewed by any demographic you may choose as a dinosaur. OH, REALLY??? I think not, and here’s a lovely little story about how connections can be made and go around the world and where there is no such thing as time. This story is not about me but about ALL of us.

There needs to be a bit of short background for the whole Second Life story to be complete. I began the journey to Second Life thanks to Myspace. I joined in 2004 without the urging of my sons but I did it anyway. To be honest, it was a way to connect with them and their friends, and despite the press’ negative stories it has been quite handy on more than one occasion when there was no other way to get in touch with them. After a few months my youngest son Alex told me of some correspondence he’d been having with a singer in the UK named Kirsty Hawkshaw. Alex is a very modest person and a bit secretive so my parental ears perked up. I did a Wikipedia search and found that she had quite a history of musical accomplishments and thought how nice for her to lend a young musician a bit of encouragement. Her efforts singlehandedly saved him from a sense of hopelessness and her words inspired him to begin a never-ceasing series of brilliant poems, lyrics and ever-reaching higher aspirations.

After some months I decided to contact Kirsty and we had several lovely conversations by messaging and when Alex’s birthday rolled around she suggested which Korg device and microphone he should get so they could begin file-sharing. Present bought, files shared, music made! This eventually turned up as a real world experience when in November of 2006, Kirsty and Alex, meeting in real life for the first time, were together and where Kirsty, gracious soul that she is, actually allowed Alex to open her signature song, Just Be.



At about this time I became aware that Kirsty was experimenting with a new medium called Second Life. The first memory I have of this is that she did an Second Life video of her and Alex’s first collaboration called Hypoheretic, a song which reached 20,000 plays on her Myspace page before she decided to feature it on her newly created website, http://www.kirstyhawkshaw.co.uk/. Just for fun, guess who is now the co-moderator of her website (read ‘porn deleter’). That’s right-moi.

I joined SL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life) in March of 2007 at Kirsty’s urging, and I will tell all who read this without equivocation that it has been a life-changing event. Myspace had only created the desire for more and SL filled that space for me in so many ways it is impossible to describe them all. If you don't care to read the wiki explanation above, I can just tell you that, in short, it is an online, virtual, 3-D world filled with with the user-created content of all of its members. All of a sudden, dropping into SL for the first time I had a real-time, interactive experience with Kirsty, her fans, friends and the occasional drop-in from other sims. Now mind you I am not a techie so it was very difficult to get started, and I still suffer a bit from post-traumatic “can’t detach the dancing cow” disorder but plod through with the help from my new friends and. Kirsty had begun having Saturday afternoon theme parties at her Club Connected in Mephit and they were like no others I’ve ever attended. Just as in any Real Life party the mix of personalities defined each one as a separate, storied tale, each having in common, though, a brilliant blend of music, conversation, worldwide humor and at the end of each, a wrenching feeling that it would be six more days before we all would meet again. This is not a game. It is real, as real as any other experience that I’ve ever had-the only part missing, of course, is the reality of being in one another’s physical space.

That piece of the puzzle was filled in on August 27, 2007 when I flew from Virginia to Chicago to attend the SL Convention. I almost passed out several times from being so overwhelmed by all of it: the people in the real world, press attention, fellowship-all of it. I sat next to a lady who is an educator in RL who is very interested in the application possibilities for those diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a wide-ranging spectrum of autism. I remember one funny little multifaceted piece of time quite clearly: this lady and I are sitting in the guest area near the elevator talking about autism when ABC news people crowd around and begin to interview her. She shows them her home in Second Life on her laptop and you can see that they are not quite getting it but are curious. She has this knowing smile on her face as any good-natured, patient teacher is apt to have and tries to explain the inexplicable, finally saying “you’ve just got to be there to fully understand it.”
At about this time I glimpse Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life, walking to the elevator, giving our scene a sideways glance and he has the same bemused, KNOWING smile that everyone there had all weekend. He has been onto this idea of connecting the communities of the world in an environment where the limitations are truly only the ones we place on ourselves.

A few weeks later Alex and I filled in another puzzle piece by flying to visit Kirsty in the UK and where Alex and Kirsty created not one or two but seven tracks of music in one week that was also filled with the amazing presence of others from SL, including SirHermanBingy and Elrik Merlin, each of whom brought their part of brilliance to the party of Real which was just a continuance of the world of SL.

The best part of the story is that this is not the end but rather just the beginning, as worlds collide and then merge, connections are made, information is exchanged, ideas are sprung, tweaked and tinkered with, and the Second Life universe expands. Kirsty Hawkshaw is a connector, a visionary who has since her career began, been far ahead of her time and is, on a daily basis, as a leader, encouraging each of us by example to reach out beyond ourselves. Music has a new definition for me now and I find I must define lots of things: time, space, friendship, distance, and each baby step we take towards one another makes this a better world.