There is something I've thinking about for a couple of weeks, and that is the notion of inviting people I know to register here and join in with us. I find myself comfortable saying, 'join in with us.' I have been here a little while now, coming up on two months. This is becoming for me a small, emotionally-integrated community, like the staff of a project. We have each come here by our separate roads, by chance and good fortune. This is separate from the everyday people I can see, and smell, and hear, and touch. I find myself asking, do I want the two communities to overlap? There is only one person I know I have been seriously tempted to invite. I think she'd appreciate it, but I can't help feeling that I might be inhibited by her presence.
To me, this is a secret place. It isn't a secret because there is anything shameful in it--on the contrary, it's goodness is an exception to the rule on the internet. In my experience, it is like a thing that defies the laws of nature, by hanging in midair, apparently without support. The law of averages says that inevitably such exceptions will occur, like the occurence of rare gems. Gems are rare, and therefore precious. You wouldn't share it with just anyone. My friend would very likely appreciate this site, but I feel I'd be sacrificing a degree of the liberty I enjoy here; that I would be inhibited in my participation. Does anyone else feel this way? Should it be left to chance, who comes here? Each of us, finally, must decide for himself; I'm not suggesting any kind of rule.
To me, this is a secret place. It isn't a secret because there is anything shameful in it--on the contrary, it's goodness is an exception to the rule on the internet. In my experience, it is like a thing that defies the laws of nature, by hanging in midair, apparently without support. The law of averages says that inevitably such exceptions will occur, like the occurence of rare gems. Gems are rare, and therefore precious. You wouldn't share it with just anyone. My friend would very likely appreciate this site, but I feel I'd be sacrificing a degree of the liberty I enjoy here; that I would be inhibited in my participation. Does anyone else feel this way? Should it be left to chance, who comes here? Each of us, finally, must decide for himself; I'm not suggesting any kind of rule.