A Smaller World

As I've mentioned before, this blogging thing really does make the world seem smaller.  I commiserate with blog friends in the UK, France, and Austria about the dreary weather and am cheered by the sight of spring blooms in Turkey. But now, news of an earthquake in Chile has me concerned about two blog acquaintances. 

Maria Cecilia  of the beautiful blog  Casa Dulce Hogar (the roses below are hers) lives near Santiago and tends what must be one of the most romantic gardens ever. I slip over there for refreshment on these bleak wintry days.  She hasn't posted recently -- on vacation for all of February, she said.  Santiago was well beyond the epicenter of the quake but even so, sustained considerable damage.

I'll be glad when Maria Cecilia posts again.

UPDATE!! Maria Cecilia has just posted to say that she and her family are fine. She asks for prayers for her countrymen who have lost loved ones and homes.

A more recent blog acquaintance is Pamela of Vanellus Chilensis and  Recorriendo la Patagonia.  She, too, is in Chile -- and, if I read the Spanish correctly, she's okay. 

But my point is this: a year ago, I would have heard about an earthquake in Chile and thought oh, how dreadful and moved on.  Natural disaster is everywhere. But now, I'm worried about people I've actually communicated with.

Do you suppose, in time, as the blogosphere expands, we really will begin to feel like everyone is our neighbor?  That no man is an island?  That we're all in this together and what affects one will eventually affect all?

It would be nice to think that blogging could put an end to war -- but man's ability to make war on his neighbors is well documented.  Still ... it's a thought.

And Patagonia seems closer than ever.

The New Widget

Have you all noticed the new little widget over there at the bottom of the right hand column? It's a live traffic map called FEEDJIT and each little red square marks a visitor to the blog. Mouse over and click on the map to enlarge it and see little flags pop up. Click on the flag to see where the readers are and what they clicked on.

Around North Carolina, the flags are so thick it's not always easy to pick out individuals but as they thin out I can sometimes guess who's who. St. Louis is likely my old college friend Susan; Jamestown, NY must be my sister-in-law's friend who monitors the blog and passes along news of my doings to my computer-free sister-in-law.

Others are what I would call birds of passage-- folks who are surfing around, hitting that tempting little NEXT BLOG button at the top of the page. How else to account for a visitor from Taiwan and others from Kuala Lumpur, Greece, and Brazil? Still, it's fun to think they lighted here, however briefly.

Some, I suspect, Googled a subject and were directed to one of my posts -- a person in Baton Rouge was checking out Lagniappe and two different people hit on White Frosting -- were they baking cakes and were they disappointed to find out I was talking about snow? And then there were two people in the south of France, one in Nimes, one in Montpellier, both of whom hit on Night Blooming Cereus -- do they know each other? Did one send a link to the other?

It's fascinating to see the effects of that world wide web!