Blogging and personal lives

I don’t claim to be a sociologist but I do like to make general guesses at what is going on with the world and where we are headed. This past week I have really become deeply aware of how I now have people in my life who I come in contact with every so often, and yet have never met. These are mostly people who either participate in VC or are bloggers that I read.

The two events that have really driven this point home for me this week were the medical issues that Weer’d’s wife has been experiencing and the fires getting ever closer to Labrat and Stingray. Now I have not met any of these folks in person, I have however read there blogs for a year or two, listened to them drone on for hours on vicious circle and certainly feel like if god forbid something terrible happened I would feel pretty damm bad. I would almost relate this to the relationship you have with a friend on Facebook who you went to high school with but have not seen in 10yrs. You feel connected even though your lives no longer intertwine.

The trouble comes when we mention these situations to individuals who are non-bloggers. More than once I have shared a story from somebodys blog and when refrencing the blogger it sorta came out as “My friend from the the internet” which sounds pretty sad and lonely if you ask me. The odd think is that society has had these relationships for a very long time. Recently here in Seattle a local celebrity new reporter, Kathi Goertzen has been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor and the out pouring of support has been large and public. I belive that in time these issues will resolve themselves. But in the mean time it could lead to some awkward moments.

FYI: according the most recent updates Mrs. Weer’d has been doing much better and Labrat and Stingray are under voluntary evacuation orders but I don’t know if they have evacuated yet.