Reverb 11, December Fourteenth

What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

Kinda shot myself in the foot for this one back on the First, didn't I?


Of what remains - of what I have not already addressed - the thing I appreciate most is the Internet.  I am of the last generation to remember vividly what life was like before we could take the Internet for granted.  Here in the "First" World, anyway - which, if you think about it, is really the Last (or at least the Most Recent) World - but I digress. Often, I remember to be grateful for the advent of the Internet; I guess I'm feeling it today.  (The Old Republic has nothing to do with that, I'm sure...)

Without it, I could not travel the world and be a full-time student; old-school correspondence courses required days at least for the back-and-forth of materials. It's helping me accomplish all of my goals simultaneously, instead of having to wrap up the school thing before beginning my professional life.


As I mentioned a few days ago, I have also come to rely on Internet sources for my sense of community.  This is actually a problem; more than many, I am aware of the need for direct interpersonal communication and contact.  Still, since I'd be completely isolated without it, I'm grateful to the Internet for the ability to simulate community while I'm too cowardly to get out there and find one for myself.  (You could argue that this simulation is keeping me anesthetized, thus depriving me of the impetus I'd need to overcome my cowardice; I know myself better than that.  I'd just be suffering.)


It's bolstered my recovery.  Since rest is so important on the road, and I don't make it to many meetings, it's absolutely key that I be able to reach my sponsor when the need arises.  The need arose more than once during my first month on the road this semester.  In the first week alone, his calming influence prevented me from firing off one or two angry emails that really didn't need sending.


How do I express my gratitude?  To the Internet?  I suppose I could gin up some Lolcats or something - nothing like a good meme to show the 'net you care.  Or I could just keep leaving pieces of myself like this blog scattered about the place, so that someday when the Internet bootstraps itself to sentience, it can read my musings and say, "You're welcome, Dash.  Also: you may live."