It Takes a Cyber Village

This is Alex - a really cool L.A. photographer/writer/artist. Goddamn cutiepie.

Alex and I collaborated on an art piece together ... and we didn't even know it.

She is an extraordinary woman. I'm going to meet her in San Diego in August ... she's an official BlogHer photographer. When I hug her, I'm not sure that I can ever let her go.

Alex - mate, thank you so much for this post. (I needed it today. Today has been hard) .

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It Takes a Cyber Village
I don’t blog. Not on a blog of my very own. Yet. But I guest blog and I contribute at BlogHer, and I end up being asked the question that I assume real bloggers, like Eden, must get all the time: why blog?

And I think of Howard’s End and the opening line “Only connect…”

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A year ago, I’d never visited this site. Last summer (that’s summer in Los Angeles/winter in Edenland) BlogHer was teaming artists and bloggers in a benefit for the Gulf oil spill. As a writer/photographer, I signed up on the artist’s end. I was sent an excerpt from a blog to work with. The words were Eden’s. Maybe you know the story. If not, Eden wrote a couple wonderful posts about it here. (Go and read it so that the rest makes sense. I’ll wait.)

Part One - No Kittens
Part Two - Dave Cries

When I read Eden’s blog for the first time, I was speechless. Me, Little Miss Chatterbox, at a loss for words after I saw these ones: B-Cell Follicular Aggressive Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. No one should be able to say that string of words so easily. And no one should have to know what they mean.

I have no idea why I put that red balloon photo in the collage. A photo never meant for any purpose but to remind me of the magnificent cousin I lost to that stupid jumble of words above.

This last autumn (spring on Eden’s side of the globe) I was able to take a photo of a different balloon. It was the most hopeful, joyful, proud balloon I’ve ever seen. One sporting a Yves Saint Laurent tag and proudly paraded for miles in celebration of Dave and Eden and their boys at the Light the Night walk. It’s the balloon that kicked cancer’s ass.

In a world that keeps getting larger and growing faster, the blogosphere seems to be reigning things in a bit. Reminding us all that this world really isn’t so big. From around the globe, friendships are forged, lives shared - a village gathers with the click of a mouse.

It takes a village to navigate through life.

Check out the incredible dialogue about mental health that began with this post over at the818. Or the Christmas miracle that came via The Bloggess .

Look at the village Eden has created - amazing guest posters who are here because Edenland brought them together.

If you ever begin to lose faith in humanity, just take a look at what the blogosphere has created. Something’s happening here.

Only connect. Forster had no idea.

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Alex Asher Sears Photography
Alex on twitter
ALEX ROCKS.