The Year of 2020
In 2020 I have found myself reconnecting with the virtual environment of second life. This has been a coping mechanism during the pandemic years. On this journey initially I have found myself investing my time to socializing. Being active and to stave off loneliness as I live on my own in real offline life. I also picked up the hobby of content creation on tiktok to build myself a routine. For a long time, this was a harmony. Of watching the news, eating, taking walks, making videos then spending a few hours a day.
With friends in the world of second life. I also moderated for a handful of groups on facebook. However, with the slow down of offline life and the self-isolation. Which I have been doing for shielding due to my multiple sclerosis and fear of getting sick. If I ever caught the virus which has brutally torn friends and family apart.
Re-joining second life in my opinion has really spared my sanity. It has given me a social outlet, that I am amiss for thinking that I could do another way. Spare for the choice to play computer games. On this path I have found myself between my study of nutrition, meditation and the occasional bouts of being depressed. The despair of the pandemic has been mutually quite a challenging if not difficult experience for so many people. I am not immune to this as much as I wish I was.
When I noticed
After a few months I started to notice something in the media and social sites. It has become very easy to criticize anyone for anything, with an army of people who have been willing if not determined to join in and support whichever cause or situation it has been about. However, with that I also spotted something that I have felt has been missing from a lot of sources.
The recognition that, in living memory no one has experienced these situations to the extremes that we are all now facing as a collective global tribe. The reactions to these situations in my opinion are one and the same thing. Which is to say we are all reacting in a manner that is personal to the level of our previous experiences in life. I am not suggesting that any of the reactions are good or bad, however they are fundamentally human reactions.
With my noticing of this trend I felt compelled to articulate the other side of the coin to this. To help others realise that whatever they were thinking or feeling was in essence, quite understandable, I am not giving anyone a free pass to behave however they feel is right, but I am also not demonizing anyone for the reactions that they have taken part in. The greatness that we all have is that we are doing the best we can with situations that we have never experienced before.
This inspired me
This is what inspired me to create art work to bring awareness and possibly inspire some introspections on self-thought. Behaviour to encourage the inner kindness that I believe any reasonable person has inside of themselves. Some reactions have been extreme to say the least, and that is in all manner of the meaning.
Globally I feel we are all trying our best to form the type of world that we would like, to live in. How we get that really comes down to the global voice of what we are willing to tolerate from a moral point of view. What is acceptable to one person might be horribly unacceptable to another, but what I feel we need is a pathway to the middle ground and better understanding to why people would think such polar opposite things. The hope that I have with my art work is to at least encourage the conversation to begin in a fair and civil manner.
Signed
Roxks