There's something my Father never said to me before he died, but I figured it out after he did: in this world, you don't know whether you're gonna be right or wrong, but if you're going to go with something, believe in it and give it the fullest you've got. It's hard to see that at the birth of an idea, but if a seed never gets watered, how can it grow? That is some very general advice about how I live my life, but to point to a favorite Torleyian page: HUMANS WITHOUT A SENSE OF TIME GO INSANE.
This is perhaps illustrated no better than using a more familiar illustration of a person who gets lost in the forest. They know if they could fly, then up would be a good start. But they prolly can't, so they have two other dimensions to contend with. And when it gets very dark at night, or if they get especially lost and desperate, a familiar line you'll hear is: "I don't remember long I was gone for, I lost all track of time."
And… same sort of thing happens with claimed UFO abductions! On a less paranormal basis, I see people experience this problem often. Think about road rage directed out of impatience. Consider screaming at the mailperson because your package hasn't arrived yet. And… specifically, think of Second Life.
I've mused before of how important having the virtue of patience is in a world where so much changes. In SL, these changes are hyperaccelerated. We can buy land within seconds without the offline inconvenience of bureaucracy. But similarly, if a mistake is made and our land is bought from us unwantedly, we may be similarly quick to rise to anger and "yell". We can clean a mess in our virtual houses with the click of a button, but another click of the button may leave us standing on an empty parcel, trying to cry even though our avatars have no tears.
For someone unacclimated to such a pace, it can be confusing, disorienting, and frustrating. Undoubtedly. Even to veterans of the form, stresses may psychologically impact and affect one's longterm health—negatively! Like a powerful vehicle traveling at an incredible velocity, we must take take to observe both the personal "speed limits" of ourselves and others, so we do not "crash". (Or "Snow Crash", as it were, LOLEX.)
As I observed my Father over the years, I began to notice he didn't think very much. This is not a bad thing at all, because as I also observed, he had already done a lot of thinking in his younger years. Trained to react instead of thinking things through analytically, my Dad was intuitive in business matters. It was the kind of time-honored experience that can only have come through going through so much.
It's not surprising, then, that when I first arrived on the sunny shores of Second Life, I had this principle in mind. I had never applied it as fully as I wanted to, before. I think fear held me back, fear of really being alive. How ironic it is, then, that I didn't start living until I became fully immersed in a "Nintendo game" (which is the endearing term the late Lim Choo Wong applied to all electronic, interactive experiences)! Which is exactly why the poles have flipped for me, and I see things so clearly now.
There's a lot that doesn't make sense to me yet. I know it will someday. It's funny, I used to hesitate a lot more before clicking the "Publish Entry" link on my blog. I hardly do that nowadays. It's not that I don't care. Oooo, quite the contrary. Rather, it's now that I care so much about my fellow Residents inworld and the world we all live in, and yet, I'm hardly emotionally dependent on the outcome.
My Dad was a great poker player. I, however, am not. This is because I haven't given it a shot, and additionally, because I have a gambling addiction. In some strange way, this allows me to "wager" on all sorts of other probabilities without laying a stack material chips down, and is an important pillar in how I perceive my experiences.
Towards the end of his life, I could see the fear, the frailty in my Father's eyes. And I disagreed with a number of things he did. But, to this day, I cannot disagree with his confidence in himself, and his confidence in me.
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