How We Live Virtually Now

I'm intrigued with the idea of "virtual," as most of us are meaning it these days:  using technology to bring us together while we stay apart.  There's the older meaning of virtual, which often has a whiff of dismissal--something virtual is not quite as good as.

I'm thinking of the virtual community I discovered when I started blogging.  And then, as people stopped long-form blogging, I felt I had lost that community--and once, that community felt almost as close as the communities I was part of in the face-to-face world, and in some cases, more so.  And then, poof, it seemed to be gone.

And now, I'm seeing some of those elements returned.  This morning, I thought about how tough this quarantine would be without that technology.  If we had had this kind of pandemic that drove us all apart from each other in the early 80's, when long distance phone calls were so expensive and it took much longer to get information out, it would be tougher in some aspects, and perhaps easier in others.  Maybe there would have been less wrong information disseminated.  But we'd have certainly been more isolated.

I've found it very comforting to check in with people virtually to compare notes.  I've found it all marvelous at how we've all managed to move so much to online environments.  I do worry about people who don't have the technology at home.

I've written a blog post about virtual church, which many of us have been experiencing and experimenting with for the first time ever.  I've been teaching online since 2013.  But I haven't done as much with other virtual communities.  About a year ago, Mepkin Abbey rolled out a program for retreatents to meet when they're not at the Abbey; groups were organized by zip code.   Because there are so few Floridians, we've been meeting virtually to journal together.  It's worked out far better than I thought it would, and I was receptive to the idea.

Today, I'm meeting virtually several times.  This morning, I'll meet with some grad school friends.  Long ago, in grad school, we met every Saturday to have tea and goodies and to work on our various stitching projects.  Then one friend moved back to England, and then, later, I moved to Florida.  Today we'll meet online to have tea and goodies.  Perhaps we'll stitch.

I'm surprised we haven't done this before.

Tonight, a group of us who would be at the Create in Me retreat if we hadn't had a global pandemic, will meet.  If I wasn't doing tea, I could meet with some of those retreat folks at a yoga session.

I'm hoping that we remember the possibilities that virtual connections give us, even as we eventually move back to whatever normal will be then.