More Amazing WebBits

Well, I suppose the man, such as any, has the right to believe in what he must. If he feels that the Net is responsible for those moving away from God or humanity, isolating, besmurched by an information explosion, where has he been hiding? I personally feel that the "open world" is so much more intuitive than what choices I had before. I truly enjoy the fact that I am able to talk to people, communicate with all different sorts of minds, find out about a world I may have otherwise ignored, me in my isolation.

Last night at the hospital (my younger sister has something strange going on and they took out her appendix, but she's still very ill), I sat in the solarium with seven other people. I was reading a novel as I waited. Everyone else was conversing loudly and watching tv. I shut off our tv last year and don't regret it. The shows that were on last night seemed very strange to me and I went to my sister's room to be alone. Everyone was too loud. I was under duress and even with my mother's minister sitting beside me, I found no peace until I was alone and quiet. I enjoy quiet. I don't always enjoy crowds. I work all day and come home at night and my son and I usually read. Then I get on the Net for a while if I'm not too tired. I don't enjoy bars since I don't drink. I'm not the type to join a single's club. If I feel good meeting men and women on the Net, then why not? I'm not going anywhere anyway!

Those who try to prophesize what may happen to the souls of humankind, adjusting their hypothesis to a single technological change, well, I feel they're basing their logic on a very small piece of the puzzle. The world has and will continue to change. It surely will never go back to the past this man seems to wish for.

I suppose I've always had a bit of a wall up when it comes to "authority" figures. Come's with the family history. I respect those who earn my respect. I have never been one to accept that the "church" is all and I should let it tell me how to run my life. I have also seen many people following bad judgements given by those in authority positions in the "church," ultimately breaking their families apart with spite and hurt. People like my mother who work without complaint, day in and day out, accepting ALL as family, counseling the sick, feeding the hungry, and striving daily to do more, believing that God will come through day by day, people like her are the real church! I'm not just trying to put my mother on a pillar, though she should be. I myself cannot deal with the human beings she hugs everyday.

All in all, I suppose the man had better write a book because he surely couldn't convince me of anything with this one article except the "church" and "government" have always been afraid of things that might develop human independence, thought and spirit. I don't believe that these developments take people away from spirituality. Perhaps they only take the people away from bowing to the rings of those who love the power.

Now, though I may have run on, this is perhaps the first thing I've written about spirituality since I used to edit the church newsletter and the homeless shelter newsletter. And it was brought about by someone who pointed out something to me. Someone I met only because of my link with the Net. Hmmmm...

The Net makes me think. More than only a minute. The things I learn here stay with my mind, whether it's something like this, a recipe for a good stew sent by a friend, or a loving encounter with another person sitting behind their own computer. I've been given a world.

March 31, 1996