Fandango’s Provocative Question #9
And the question is:
“As a blogger, do you enjoy ‘virtual relationships’? Do you consider them to be real?”
If you don’t like virtual relationships, you probably shouldn’t be blogging. Blogging is about writing, photography, art … what you are into. But as much as it’s about art — whatever your version of art is — it’s also about the people with whom you develop relationships. Online.
Are they real? Many of my online relationships feel more real than my “real” relationships. I spend more time with online friends than with real live friends. If it weren’t for the distances involved — in some cases literally the other side of the world — I’d be there for coffee or whatever in the morning.
When one of my “online friends” goes missing, I worry. Many of us are pretty senior, so when we go missing, everyone worries about injury or even death. Then we need to track that person down, which is why anonymous bloggers are terrifying for those of us who actually care about the people. If they go missing, we have no way to get any information.
Anonymous is also a hard person to get close to. Just saying.
As for the other question:
“What are you struggling with the most right now?”
In equal measure, money, health, and what is left of the ecology of the world. Which is all wrapped up in current politics. In our hateful politics where hatred, arrogance, and cruelty is our biggest and best weapon.
Money and health are personal issues. They concern most retired people of a certain age, but the politic horrors we are going through? They are stupid, unnecessary … and they make everyone’s life just a little — or a lot — worse.
I don’t know how I wandered into this nightmare country that is supposedly mine. I don’t recognize this world. I don’t recognize this government. I don’t understand how Americans can allow such horrors to be supported by their government. Whatever this is, it’s not freedom. It’s wrong on every level.
It’s entirely possible I don’t want to understand.
I’m also stressed for time, but all things considered, it’s a minor issue.
FPQ
FAKE NEWS, CENSORSHIP AND GREED 
ENDING LIFE 
THE BETTER PARTS OF OLD 
WHAT ARE YOU? 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
One of the best things about the internet is that even if you are unable to get out and about much you can still participate in conversations with your online friends and feel like part of the world. Also, I can visit with you in my pyjamas, something I would NOT do with the people I know locally.
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If it weren’t for the internet, many of us would be shut-ins with little contact with the rest of the world. Whatever objections I have to modern electronic communication, I don’t know how I would survive without it.
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I agree and this is doubly true for people living in rural and remote areas where there may not be much in the way of entertainment, shopping or transport. I find it annoying that those areas are often the last to get fast internet services as they need them the most.
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I think you get to know that a lot of the bloggers are real people. When I look at my spam box you can tell they’re not.
It’s wonderful to get to know people from all over the world, people you wouldn’t normally get a chance to meet because they do live far away.
Leslie
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I’ve learned a huge amount from the people I know online. One of the most important things I’ve learned is how similar we are in all the essential ways, no matter how far apart we live.
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I find that too, Marilyn….
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Leslie, that’s how I feel about you.
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Garry, you and Marilyn are like old friends to us too.
Leslie
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Ms Marilyn, you said “I don’t know how I wandered into this nightmare country that is supposedly mine. I don’t recognize this world. I don’t recognize this government. I don’t understand how Americans can allow such horrors to be supported by their government. Whatever this is, it’s not freedom. It’s wrong on every level.” From what I understand of it, this is what a lot of Germans were saying when Hitler came to power. And like them, Americans of all opinions are being lumped together as supportive of that gasbag and his ideas. It really steams my clams. One of my siblings wants to tour Europe sometime and I said “You better go do it as soon as you can, because I doubt Americans are going to be very welcome in a lot of those countries in the days to come.” I think so too. We’ll be regarded as the modern day ‘Nazi’. It’s horrifying.
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I don’t think we are all being lumped together. There’s too much protest. We brought the House back into Democratic control and we WILL have elections. We have not quite yet been taken over … and as long as there IS a free press, Trump notwithstanding, we can change. But it’s hard and it’s discouraging and I find it difficult to believe we actually allowed this asshole to be elected at all.
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Melanie, it is horrifying. All that you’ve said. I’m glad I am not just entering adulthood and facing our current world for who knows how long.
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You speak for a lot of women “of a certain age,” although I have far surpassed that age limit. The so-called “Golden Years” have disintegrated into the lowest of elements. Everything has risen in price except for our incomes. My daughter and I live on Social Security, or try to, in an 80-year-old house that needs a total face lift. So do we, but the house is more important.What keeps us going are our wonderful friends and our cat,Gabriel, a Maine Coon who is a constant source of joy.Reading blogs such as yours keeps me on task as well. Thank you, Marilyn.
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We also live in a crumbling house and social security doesn’t give bonuses for work on homes. I try not to worry excessively about things I can’t fix. I also try not to worry excessively on health … either of ours. Because what will be, will be and my brooding about it won’t change anything. Anyway, I always worry about the wrong things. Whatever happens is never what I was worried about.
Like most seniors, we live month to month and try to do the best we can on what is essentially about $1000 less than we need to live on. And there’s nothing we can do about it.
We are all living longer. Given how shockingly healthy Garry is, he could outlive all of us. I don’t think he likes that idea very much.
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We feel the same about you.
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Trump is likely to declare a national emergency in order to fund his unnecessary wall to address his made up national emergency. If the Trump presidency wasn’t such a tragedy iitvwoukd make a great comedy. Actually, it wouldn’t. No audience would believe that a president can be that much of an amoral moron.
And I agree with you about virtual relationships in the blogosphere. When bloggers I follow, anonymous or not, suddenly stop posting, I worry about what happened to them.
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I wonder how bad it has to get before it’s too much and some kind of change occurs. I have seen recently, for some reason unknown to me (Universe speaking? Perhaps) movies about WWII. Not the combat type film with grim visaged men going about getting shot and dying dramatically, but the STORY of lives affected by that war. And there’s been a fair amount of chat about Hitler in them (obviously). THAT’S what’s happening to us (IMHO). We’re all sitting on our hands, waiting for the other guy to jump first, and by doing that we’re all supportive of that bad toupee wearing idiot in the White House. A character last night in one such film said “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men (including women) to do nothing.” That’s what I personally feel is going on. And I’m no better than the next guy or perhaps even worse. But at least I have the ‘excuse’ poor as it is, that nobody listens to women. Not these days.
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I agree. I just published a post that expresses these same sentiments.
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I think we have no idea what to do as individuals. We aren’t an army. We aren’t a militia. We aren’t exactly in a position to storm the capital. One of the things I am learning is how helpless individual citizens are.
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Fandango, I think of you and others as extended family. I look forward to our daily shares as a fabric of my life. Our shares feel very genuine to me. Not artificial as some of our “in person” acquaintanships which are one dimensional and mundane.
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Thank you, Garry. I feel the same way about you and Marilyn.
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You’re right. There are more serious problems than time management.
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At least time I can figure out. The rest of it is way above my pay grade.
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😊🙏
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A few of my virtual relationships feel very real. Matter of fact, I said just that to my friend, Gene, in Arizona. We’ve evolved from sharing movie tidbits to family stuff. Hoping to meet him if and when visit Arizona again.
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