Memories...

I have spent the last few days... well, the last week or so really, ever since Valis disappeared, collecting all my memories of it. I have always been a SL shutterbug. Problem is I have photos scattered across at least 4 computers/laptops (and let's not talk about the many flash and portable hard drives). The thing is SL is just so damn pretty. And in SL we are so damn pretty. And there are all those magic moments.

It is hard to not get caught up in the magic of Second Life, in the "SL effect"--that sense that the things that happen in the virtual world are sometimes more real than your real world. It is true, it can be dangerous and even painful to expect too much from a virtual world. To believe in the game. But here's the thing: in SL we are real people, too. I don't want to think of SL as a distraction from my real world--I like my RL. I think of SL as a beautiful addition to my life. Enrichment. I have met more people that I would never have had the chance to meet. I have learned how beautiful it can be to love someone in SL. I refuse point blank to believe that love is ever a bad thing. Or that happiness, however fleeting, is bad either. I refuse to think that time spent with another person, caring about, getting to know that person, intimately: mind, body, and soul--no matter what ever happens in the long run--I refuse to think that kind of connection is ever a mistake.

So I have been gathering my memories, of Valis, and of Firefly before it. Of Draven. Of Heron and Wren, Hawk, Mal. Of Dabrin, and of Jinara, Jhai, and Noir. Of everyone who came, and so briefly lived, and loved someone at Valis. I am gathering all my pictures--all my memories. And putting them up in Flickr.

Right here... where I can look and remember. And never regret a single moment.