A Second Life

If you could do something different, what would it be? Would you change yourself? Change your life? I am on a constant quest for betterment in the world, through the micro-actions of my life. Hopefully they will at least affect some change; at least for Isabella and Alec. I have my own type of instruction booklet guided by principle, hard work, discipliine and utter sincerity of heart. Much of what I do is inspired by my Bahá’í sense of purpose, peppered with my personality and experience as a woman, mother, lawyer, friend and soulmate.

If I didnt have this path though, where would I be? What would I have done? Well, for some of us, there is a second reality available to you for free, as long as you have the internet, can download an application and connect.

"Second life". A place that was created by Linden Labs to set in motion a new virtual community filled with keyboard communicators across the world. So far there are about 180,000 (or so) members from around the world loggin in at different times or at the same time to discover the areas navigatable by your specially made, customized moving and virtual living avatar.

My avatar's name is Alanna and I have purple hair with red eyes, and long hair. Even in the virtual world I can't seem to settle for a hair cut. I log in by clicking on an icon that resembles a green gloved hand and enter...

This is a fascinating place where anyone can be anyone and walk through computer generated lands, discovering things, people, creativity, art, places that satisfy our lower nature and many other areas which I have not ventured into to discover. I personnaly still having trouble navigating with arrows, page ups and page downs (which help you fly). I wish I had a GPS system to get around but no such luck. So anyway, I get online, stay on for about 15 minutes and then log off. I seem not to have the patience to linger, learn and slowly find my way. I walk into trees, dip into water and fly backwards a lot.

My graceful husband (as Scott) of course has already found out how to sail a boat, not surprising of course based on his innate skills at navigating, discovering and acquiring knowledge. Plus he misses sailing on this planet (he once spotted Duran Duran on their yacht while he was sailing!!!)

Where can this virtual community lead to? In a perfect world, perhaps dialogue, growth, empathy and communication. In fact I think there are some university sponsored learning centers that have launched virtual lectures there as well. That sounds cool. The other telling item is that many areas of the virtual community are built by members online, they own the IP rights (as long as they share the coding with the owners, an open source type sharing tool for the master coders)and folks can charge Linden Dollars which can accumlate into real Earthling dollars. Interesting business models...collaborative development through a voluntary system with shared opportunities and possible benefits leading to profits, creative expression and...

Well, I will hold off on judging or commenting on the future of this place just yet and will revisit this item later on. For now, I'll get back to my reality... my primary (1st) life.

Peace.