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I was living in Rochester New York. My wife and I had been living there a year.
Well actually, let me take you back. My wife had given birth to our daughter, Maggie, in Austin Texas. Before that had happened we had decided that she should return to Rochester, New York to finish the degree she had started two years prior at Rochester Institute of Technology.
We moved. With a three-month-old. We moved in October...to Rochester...from Austin. See where I'm going with this? From a 112 degree summer to a sub-degree winter. Difficult doesn't come close to describing the experience but it's all I can muster in my drunken state.
Add to that, after the joke of the campaign that had just taken place; the faux debates, the country rallying around this asswipe in chief; then came the elections in Nov. and, to be honest, I had no time to digest it all. Between the baby, and work, and helping my wife, I didn't really have time to digest everything that had happened in the country. Then 9/11 and...well everyone knows that part...
My best friend had recently moved to San Francisco and he suggested that I check out a sight that he had recently discovered called Democratic Underground.com. That was the fall of 2001.
I started lurking. I read and read and read and read. I didn't really post anything of any substance in the first year as I was completely daunted at the amount of intelligentsia at the place. It was a petri dish; a culture of warmth, compassion, fervor,open-mindedness, and, above all, spirited and staggeringly intelligent and well-informed debate. I was energized, revitalized and pumped again with hope that there were people in the country who were as outraged, saddened and confused as myself. It helped my cope. I was addicted.
We left Rochester and headed for San Francisco. The move had me disconnected from "web-life" for several months. But, lately, I've come back. Again, I've started slowly; lurking, reading, digesting; just about constantly consumed with endless links, continually fascinating debate and uplifting commentary. As before, my jaw is always on the floor when I come here and it's equally hard to leave.
I started posting again, becoming emboldened and feeling the need to connect with the people here. And I have. They've reached out to me; are available; tell me what they're thinking and feeling and care what I am. What a place. Perfect timing. Where would we be without it? Lost, I say. Thanks, DU.
Cheers to you and cheers to my Thousandth Post.
Luke
:thumbsup:
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