Invisible Writing

Is this but a dream within a dream?

Someone asked this question once. And it is a critical one to consider when it comes to the entire MMORPG (massively multiple on-line role play game) environment. How many layers do we, like that proverbial onion, or can we sustain? Better yet, why do we find “layers” necessary or important, sustainable or comforting?

When I first entered the virtual world I now spend time in (many think too much time in), it was, again to do research into what was happening in the Web 2.0 universe. It seemed quite trivial and silly when I first stepped through “orientation” and thinking back to those early days, remember that I never did figure out how to pick up the silly beach ball and put it on the picnic table – I just can’t be bothered with such annoying things.

What I did notice was that everyone seemed to enjoy flying. The first time I tried it was in an effort to get off “Orientation Island” and onto an island I could see was just a short ways away.

I knew I could fly. I had hovered enough during a little practice exercise to know that in this new world, the Laws of Gravity seemed not nearly so important as they are in my real world. So I did what any bright AV (avitar) would do, I hit the “Fly” button at the bottom of my screen and immediately shot up into the air!

It was pretty neat actually until I tried to fly in a direction and got out over the “ocean” and hit the wrong button again and began to plumet, arms and legs flailing in desperation, into the water! Strangely enough, without even realising it, I had invested emotionally in my little black, pig-tailed AV and was surprised at the adrenelin my body began to release as I felt the fear of drowning surround me on the bottom of this little body of water. Fortunately, I recovered my senses enough to find the “Fly” button again and flew up to the island.

So from then on, I decided I would walk…and I did. All around me people flew, but I walked. I figured in real life you walk, so I would walk. My only exception to this early rule was when I found a TP (Transport) that would, like the classic story of “The Fly”, take me from one place to another magically with a neat “whoosh” sound upon take off and arrival.

Dangerous Lives

At first I avoided crowds of people because they seemed really dangerous and I’m sort of a coward. But began to meet people one-on-one. There was the night I was walking all alone in some city, wondering if I should look both ways as I crossed the highway and someone just appeared in front of me and asked me if I had noticed the moon. I hadn’t and we stood there and watched the most beautiful full moon sink into the sea. It was tremendous.

Eventually I met more and more individuals who “became” individuals and eventually I made my way to one of the hubs of this virtual world – Phat Cats Ballroom. Yes, ladies and gentlemen ballroom and Latin dancing is so alive and well in the virtual world. And through a series of connections, I met a wonderful man from Greece who helped me transform my AV into who she is today, the gracious and beautiful, much sought after, Lady Sheridanne Kelley. (He remains evermore my Pygmalian.)

Turner's Words

My dear (not allowed to call him great anymore) Turner greeted me with his writing this morning (which I highly recommend to you: Turner ) entitled, “Divisions of Self”. In it he wrote:

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“Taken altogether where do you stop, and your avatar begin:

“You stop, to the extent of your own imperfections that make you who you are , RL, including your own mortality*.

“Your avatar begins at the investment you can make of yourself to pursue a spiritual ideal that helps you to explore a part of you that you either wish to increase, acquire or diminish.
“There is a certain amount of information and things that can go between the worlds. >:) Its better to keep the two worlds separate and have the most fun in the real world. The basic idea I use is ..

“"Name. Rank and Serial number. Anything more than that, and you have to pay a quarter just like everybody else."

“The most pathetic and scary part of all of this is that I felt I +needed to write an essay on this+. * imperfection counts. +the girl+ had a point.

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See that last little bit after “*imperfection counts” ? Turner is a very clever man and I’m sure he had no hopes or expectations of my finding this….but I did. I hope Lady Sheridanne is the one who had the point.

What was her point? Glad you asked. She again referenced his lovely writing and answered it:

He said,

"There is a fine line between love and illusion
A fine place to penetrate
The gap between actor and act
The lens between wishes and fact"
_____________________________

She answered his words and said,

Yes the line between love and illusion
is almost as fine as the gossamer wings
of a butterfly or a fairy...

easy to penetrate but impossible to repair.
Are our act authentic or merely pretend?
Where is the truth of the illusion?
Do our wishes not sometimes even colour the facts,
if they are strong enough for us to look through?

Perhaps!

/me smiles