Garden for the Missing

Hello everyone.  Once again I am writing about one of the locales I visited in Second Life.  It is called Garden for the Missing.  You can easily find it by doing a search in Second Life.  To see images of the garden click here.

I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Ronnie Rhode, founder and creator of the garden.  In our conversation she emphasized the value a place like Second Life has in providing any of us with the ability to do, as she put it, 'good' work.  Though I generally abstain from using terms such as good and bad (remember, I think too much) I understand what she means.  The opportunity to constructively influence the 'real' world, and by extension the evolution of both the individual and the collective (i.e. the human race), through this 'virtual' world is amazing!

She began work on the garden in mid 2007 and opened the garden to the public in September of the same year.  She explained that she had no experience with construction in Second Life and taught herself how to do it.  Here is an example of what I have been writing about, of how any of us can, by investing our energy, do anything in this world!  Specifically, any of us has the ability to do something 'good' for ourselves and for our fellow human beings.

I know I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again; I am impressed by the opportunity a world like Second Life presents for organizations and like-minded people to connect.  In this case the organization is one we may consider to be involved in a noble cause.  Whether our connecting and interacting with this 'noble' organization (the garden) results in more cases being solved is not what I am interested in.  This would obviously be wonderful, but what I find interesting is that Second Life adds another medium through which we can become actively involved in directly reshaping our 'real' world.  We can influence people's 'real' lives.  Whether we choose to be constructive or destructive is another topic.  In this instance Ronnie Rhode has done something to constructively affect change in the 'real' world.

I am going to cut this entry short.  However, there are so many tangents my mind has taken notice of as I write.  For instance, how active is our participation in this medium?  Isn't it in fact passive?  What kind of influence does a virtual world like Second Life really have in reshaping the lives of people all around the world?  There's so much to think about.  In fact  there is more to write about my visit to the garden (I met another interesting person there).  But I must go for now.

Thank you for reading my blog.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Sincerely,

Pluton Karas