Sunday
Apr042010
It's a Small World After All
April 4, 2010
This week, Thursday, Astrid and I fly [faster than a tricycle without pedals!] to Liverpool from Amsterdam for a 5-day honeymoon. We will be staying with Tracy, a fellow Shutterchancer (SC) whom we met 3 years ago and whom we call the 3rd Musketeer. On Saturday morning we will meet up with the Three Stooges, 3 SC fellas (all from the UK) we have grown close to over the years: Bill, Chris and Chad. Astrid has already met them. On Saturday afternoon we will then meet up with many other SCers from all over who will get together just for the halibut...most of whom have never yet met each other.
This has got me thinking about our virtual communities and the amount of time we spend with each other on our blogs, reading and commenting back-n-forth. A virtual friend I recently met through this community, V&V, told me that sometimes these virtual friendships are more real than...reality. I had to stop and think about that! She may be right: I spend more time with some of you than my friends from Atlanta (now that I'm on the other side of the Pond). On SC I joke around with friends I've never met but whose sentences I can finish.
Our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world where this is the ho-hum norm. While we all know of the "freak accidents" of the Internet world, sometimes with costly invasions of our privacy, we still bare our souls to each other, perhaps in ways we have never previously done. If we actually meet in real life, a friendship can be truly cemented...for life.
Already in the young world of V&V I am starting to feel "connected." Based on my blogging experience thus far, I'm guessing I'll eventually even meet some of you. It's such a small world after all! And Petra, a fellow collaborator here on V&V, is only 30 km away! Sounds like a no-brainer, right?
And now that I think of it, Astrid and I met in 2007 through our SC photoblog community while commenting on each other's posts. Three months later we had the chance to actually meet while I was in the Netherlands and then started doing photo hunts together. Almost 3 years later, I moved to Holland where we are now wife and wife...getting ready to go on our honeymoon.
It's a small world after all! I'm humming the tune of the Disneyland ride I have taken so many times, reminded of the "children of the world, frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the ride's title track, which has a theme of global peace."
It's a world of laughter,
A world of tears.
It's a world of hopes,
And a world of fears.
There's so much that we share,
That it's time we're aware,
It's a small world after all.
There is just one moon,
And one golden sun.
And a smile means,
Friendship to every one.
Though the mountains divide,
And the oceans are wide,
It's a small world after all.
--By Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman
I would say that just about says it all!
Reader Comments (21)
Ginnie, thanks for sharing and I am a little jealous that you and Astrid will meet all those amazing folks. Pictures! Pictures! Your words can not ring any truer about how people connect through the Internet and how we are all just looking to...fit in somewhere. Enjoy! and Laugh and have the time of your life! .......on a different note, that Disney ride always scared me! :)
i have to say the same as ken - wish i could transport myself over there and join your SC weekend!! what fun!!!!! hope to see pictures :)
Well said, well written and so true, Ginnie!
The next meet-up will be in Borneo, yes? :-) Have a blast in UK!
These virtual communities truly are amazing. In so many ways - they become jumping off points...from which and where we grow. Someday - or maybe already - social psychologists and sociologists will study this new way of 'connecting'. T'will be interesting to see what they find.
Sounds like a wonderful honeymoon that you and Astrid of planned. Makes such good sense to celebrate with those that helped make you who you are together. Have fun..and - yes - take lots of photos to remember and share with all of us!!! :-)
'Hoe klein is de wereld' it's a small world after all, I saw this ride in Disney World in 1976.
After reading your words, I can only say that I am thankful for the internet, for buying my camera in Mai 2007, for talking with my brother who lives in Canada about having my own blog, he send me some links, Shutterchance was one of them and because it was the most easy to use, I became a member......scared that I was not to fit in, my English was out of a dictionary, it took me hours to respond, very afraid of saying something I should not say.
Now I can say I dream in English again, I don't give a hoot if I make mistakes, I always say, I speak/write better English than most of them speak Dutch and use your imagination, read between the lines.
So buying my camera ended up to be married to you......
For the ones that cannot come to the meeting, we will post pictures and the stories will be told.
A small story to end, yesterday we met a lady, she was born in Antwerp, Belgium, lived in Hilversum for 50 years, now lived in our apartment-building for 7 years and sat across the table of us with the Easter-brunch.......I was born in Hilversum and lived there for 27 years........
Do you know this saying: de kat uit de boom kijken? That's me, in the real world and in the virtual world. Now, how do I translate that?? I found this on the internet: Literal translation: the cat watching from the tree. Translation: someone who prefers to observe people first before initiating a conversation.
But it is time for me to come out of my tree and I would really like to meet Astrid and you. Have a smasking honeymoon and after that we'll meet!
smashing ;-)
What a great read Ginnie! I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures from your Liverpool trip. Have a great time!
I just read your post on your blog and finished by wishing you two to enjoy yourself on your trip like kids. I had not read this post here where you end up with a kids’ song. So we are on the same page. I think that this is what happens with blogs. There are millions of blogs but when one clicks to us it is because we find that we like what their posts say or show. We also check their blogs often, more often that we can sometime see our other friends. Since I retired I did not have friends close by and thought I would be isolated with my husband. Now friends are as close as my computer in my study – and it is so neat. The other great point is that with the Internet we can make friends with people from a variety of backgrounds, of difference age, in many parts of the world – something not so easy to do in real life.
Yes, the internet had changed our world, in ways that we are only starting to comprehend I think. And it is so interesting to watch our children, mine are in their early 20s, some of the first to grow up with computers as common as television, and they are constantly connected, socializing, interacting. A small, small wonderful world...
I am very grateful for the virtual world that the internet has provided for without it, I would never have "met" you my dear friend and Astrid as well.
Enjoy your honeymoon - every single moment of it - and know that you are loved by so many throughout this very small world.
peace to you both ...
well said Ginnie, i think some people treat online relationships as if they AREN'T real, not realizing that it hurts just as much to lose an online friend as a rl one!
I know blogging and photography is a huge part of my life and I would not have met some of the coolest friends ever without being on the internet to help jump start the experience... You for one of them!
It is such a smaller world today Ginnie now that we have planes that jet us off quickly to meet up people who were in the virtual world...
Yup.. Here's to more meet ups in the future!
Thanks for putting that song into my head Ginnie:)
So well said and so true Ginnie. I hope you'll have the best time ever in UK.
Ginnie, I would never have believed anyone who told me a year ago that i would make friends with other bloggers - or even that I would have a blog. I sometimes question the reality of these friendships, but just like 'classic' friendships, some are less deep, less open, and less likely to last, while others speak to us in significant ways. Recently I've discovered a group of funny British bloggers, who have made me feel very welcome, and I find myself in a totally different world than the serious one I usually inhabit. Totally wonderful!
I wish you and Astrid a memorable honeymoon. What a story the two of you have created together! It's fabulous.
Oh Ginnie, you are so right! The internet has certainly changed our lives - remember when it used to take 2+ weeks for a letter to reach an overseas destination? Oh my! I love the world we are living in - and the experiences the internet adds to that.
So very well said, Ginnie. Sometimes I feel as though I am closer to my online friends than my real life friends. My online friends I touch base with hopefully a couple of times a week, but my real life friends are busy with work and life and we just don't connect that often (not that my online friends aren't busy, too, but they make time to connect). Sure wish I could join you for your meet-up, but another time will have to do. Lots of pictures are a must!
It's absolutely TRUE that it's a small world. I find that out all the time. Everyone and everything is connected, somehow in this world. I think that makes some of us more community minded. Don't watch the news though... some of them aren't very community minded...
I am so jealous that you get to go on a honeymoon!! Oh! I can't wait until my Hubby (of 10 years) and I get to go on one. When our boys get a little older, I have all kinds of wonderful honeymoon ideas ;)
Have a WONDERFUL time!!
I dream of meeting my blogging friends in real life one day. Ahhh...the dream WILL come true, I believe it!
Enjoy your Honeymoon and special time. Thoughts are with you...
I wish both of you a lovely honey-moon!! Enjoy it to the full! ANd of course, have big fun with the lot!!