Month: January 2016

The Interwebs Is a Small World

“It’s A Small World” first appeared at the 1964 New York World’s Fair in the UNICEF pavilion. The exhibit was moved to Disneyland in 1966, after the World’s Fair closed.

In 1989, the world wide web was invented as an open source space of information, shared between computers and accessed via addresses and locators.

This past week, and especially this morning, the theme of the ride and world wide web’s interconnectedness crashed down on me in a huge way.

The world has become increasingly smaller over the years that the interwebs has advanced. Computers allow us to become a part of communities of like minded thinkers. We can meet and interact with people on the other side of the world at any time of day or night. We meet people and become a part of their lives and they a part of ours.

Last week, I heard of the death of a little boy who, with his family, had battled against pediatric brain cancer for just under a year. Jonny died on Christmas Eve and leaves behind his twin brother, sister and parents. They all have a devout faith, and I hope that this helps them through this time and the rest of their lives.

This morning, I read about another young man, Joe who died a couple of weeks ago. Joe fought pediatric brain cancer also. As he went into surgery a couple of years ago, his mother asked his if he was scared and Joe quoted his father and said “Fear isn’t real.” T-shirts were made with this phrase and sold. I have one of those shirts and will wear it today for Joe and Jonny.

A few minutes later, I looked at the Facebook page of BlinkNow. Maggie Doyne took her gap year after high school and traveled the world. She found herself trekking through the Himalayas, through the most poverty stricken part of Nepal. She met a little girl. Saw a need and an opportunity to change the world, or change a small piece of it. Maggie built a small home, built bigger homes, built a school, and she is still changing her piece of the world. Maggie was named CNN’s Hero of the Year for 2015.

She is well known in Nepal and women and families will bring their children to her to care for and raise. She is changing the world one child at a time. I am not sure how Ravi came into her life but this little bundle has been her heart and soul since he arrived. I am not sure what happened, how it happened, but Ravi died on Wednesday. Maggie wrote an absolutely wrenching post and the pain was palpable. I felt it down to my core. I still do. There are no words.

We love the people in our lives. The pain we feel when they died is sometimes unbearable. The interwebs brings more and more people into our sphere and we love them, celebrate with them, and mourn with them just as much as if we could sit with them, hold their hand and have a cup of tea.

The harder we love, the harder we feel loss. It seems little consolation that if you feel loss very deeply it is because you have loved so very deeply. I hope each of you loves very deeply for the days you are here and we must all help each other through what is on the other end of that love.