Seeing all the uproar here about the upcoming changes once again makes
me realise how much this place means to everyone. This community has
existed for years, a thing few messageboards can say about themselves.
There are people here who have been posting for years, even since the
beginning, and there are even less messageboards who can say that.
These boards are so much more than any other web forum I have ever
seen. Very cheesy to say this, perhaps, but we are a Fellowship. We can
have disagreements, but they are mostly solved quickly and
diplomatically. We share each other's good days and bad days, the
deepest stirrings of our souls we lay bare to one another in our poetry
and stories. We laugh and cry together.
Yaralindi once said to me (sorry for quoting you, Yar): 'this is what I
love about this place, everything, even disagreeing, is done in
friendship and respect. Tolkien would be proud.'
We are more than just a web community. We are a family.
I don't know about you guys, but I have been changed by these Boards.
Two years ago I joined because I wanted to read other people's opinions
on themes in LOTR. I did not post for myself, because I was ashamed of
my clumsy English. When I finally gathered the courage to de-lurk in
early 2003, I found myself being embraced into the family (LithyQ who
was no mod yet, was the first ever to give me an online hug, even
though it took me a week before I could figure that out). I posted my
very first poem in February, and in April my very first Inkling. A lot
has happened since then. :-)
Also I remember that when I heard about the Gathering in Toronto, where
so many Board people would be, I really wanted to go, but thought I
would never because that meant I would have to travel to the other side
of the world, on my own. My parents would never allow it, and anyway
that was just crazy, going all the way there to meet my online friends.
Last December I saw ROTK on Opening night, in an auditorium packed with
Ringer friends, at the Canada Tolkien Gathering, and it was the best
night of my life.
The people here have become more than just online friends. Whenever
Agape posts something, I smile because I see her face. When Varda
throws in one of her stirring musings, I can hear her voice speaking in
my head. I see Hobbitlove's smile when I read her name. Indis, Agi,
Rosie, RosieC, Lizmybit, Tori, Calafalas, Mrs Frodo, Mel, Lyria,
Icarus, FredO... I see past the letters and pixels, and past
cyberspace, and look into lovely and friendly faces. This summer I'm
going to spend with Indis, Elentari and Varda. I'm going on
mini-vacations with RosieCotton, Varda, and Agi. These are no things
you do with someone you just know 'from the Internet'.
If ever my house would be on fire, I would be hopelessly lost. Too many
treasures there that cannot be replaced. My Frodo-pillow and
Merry-teddybear which Agi gave me, which I always cuddle whenever I'm
sad and can't sleep, my Merry, Frodo and Sam in armour from Lith, which
stand at the bottom of my screen as I write my Inklings, my
mini-Gandalf bust and TTT litho's that Prim sent me, my coin collection
that Lyria gave me, my 'Tale of Ancalimë' book by Mel, even my
Toronto travel guide from Calafalas and the stones I've found with
Varda on our little vacation. All these things are so precious to me.
I just wish I had someone here in the RW with whom I could talk, who
would understand my distress about these upcoming changes. Because, in
whatever way you look at it, changes always mean loss. We the 'old
guard' will always feel something missing.
I just desperately hope that it won't be each other.
I stand by what I wrote yesterday in that clumsy poem of mine: it's not
the house that makes it a home, it's the people, and the furniture, and
the memories.
(((((Board Family))))
Avondster
