An Introduction: The Life of a Virtual Packrat

Though I’ve grown up during a technological era, I’ll admit that I am slightly wary of technology. Though I’m the daughter of a computer geek, I still privilege the face-to-face over the virtual, the tangible over the intangible and nature over machinery (which is how I explain my bias toward fantasy over sci-fi). Yet, despite this, I’m becoming a virtual packrat.

If I’m honest, I have to admit that I’ve joined at least a dozen virtual communities. With the exception of a few, I can’t manage to be loyal to them and yet I can’t bring myself to erase my accounts either. So, my virtual identities collect virtual dust out in cyberspace. I’m sure there are some I can’t ever remember anymore (or at least I can’t remember the username and password). The primary communities I have been the most faithful to have been blog sites.

During my senior year in high school, I created a livejournal account so that I could join a friend’s online book club. I never ended up reading the book but I began to use the account regularly. During my freshman year of college, I switched over to xanga since it was more popular on my campus. The following year, last [school] year, I tried to wean myself off of my computer because I felt like it had become too much of a distraction. During that time, my xanga was sorely neglected and soon lost its readers.

Lately, I’ve been missing my blog. There is something about sharing one’s thoughts and experiences in a public place that is enjoyable. Since xanga is rather passé now, and I’m looking for a way to motivate myself to maintain the English Society blog more regularly, I decided to create my own blogger blog. Maybe I’ll be able to remain faithful to this community.

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“I had the idea that it might be wonderful if we could find a world where we could hold on forever to the good feelings we get from a story or a song, keep those feelings insider ourselves forever instead of having them only for fleeting moments. We hear a song or we read a story, and the good feelings we get don’t remain inside us. We are either anticipating them, or we’ve had them and they’re all gone. We never experience them as now. Do you know what I mean? I’m writing a story about a little girl who discovers a cave where there is lasting now.”

“What are you calling it?”

“The Cave of Now.”

“That’s clever. The Cave of Now…Very clever. Now or never. Now and forever. If not now, when?”

~ The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok