These Are the People in My Virtual Neighborhood

I have a blogging ritual. I check out my favorite blogs before I go to my own home over here in Typepad land and tinker with my own.

I have become a blogging junkie, wrapping myself in other people's stories, the fly on the wall in their personal lives, having access to what they let me in on. Some of the bloggers are shameless about their honesty, throwing their lives and opinions out there onto the virtual stage to be ridiculed or revered. Other bloggers are only going to let you see what they want you to, keeping you at arm's length and keeping things friendly, if a bit frosty.

I tend to fall somewhere in the in-between along with a whole slew of bloggers out there, who like to write about life's mysteries and peculiarities we call kids, but keep the deep stuff out of the equation. I typically write about what Sprite is up and frolic in the shallow end of the blogging pool, although sometimes I do feel inclined and inspired to wade into the deep end and swim a bit with the melancholy/angst authors.

Most of the blogs I have grown attached to are basically light hearted and fun, humorous musings on life and life's obstacles. I use these blogs to escape reality for minutes at a time on a daily basis. (You know, come to think of it, blogging could be my version of WoW... Oh, the irony!) These daily posts usually never fail to deliver the needed seritonin boost.

It's easy to imagine that the authors of these blogs are like fictional characters of a sitcom or a Disney movie. The plot or daily entry is always simple to navigate and usually wraps up within 10 minutes and sends you off with a little zinger to make you chuckle.

Nothing bad ever happens in a Disney movie (unless it's to the parents of the hero or heroine for some reason. Ariel's mom? Bambi's mom? Nemo's mom? Wow, a lot of moms here. Um, is there a trend to killing off the mother that no one's told me about?) and life lessons are taught. Kind of the same thing in these light-hearted blogs. We write about our kids' antics and mishaps and share a giggle with the (mostly) faceless virtual world.

And then reality creeps in and reminds me that the people behind these blogs are human just like me. They suffer through divorce, death, miscarriages, fighting, make ups, and emotional upheaval you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

Two of my favorite bloggers provided a bitter dose of reality this morning when I checked their blogs. I felt somehow betrayed when reading about the impending divorce of one and morose and empathetic when reading about a miscarriage for the other. Tears came to my eyes both times and dashed my good mood. This isn't supposed to happen here! You're not supposed to have bad things happen to you! Yet, it happened. Life didn't spare them just because they write about life. In some way, it seems like life hit them a bit worse because they write about life.

I do not actually know either of these people, yet I do know them more personally than some my family members. Does this make sense? I have a daily view of the innerworkings of their life just like they have a daily view of mine. In the virtual world, bloggers tend to travel in the same social circles. It's kind of like high school. There's the cool kids everyone wants to know and be associated with, the sci-fi geeks, the jocks, the brains, every clique you can think of. However, unlike high school, everyone's door is open to you. They allow you to get to know them as much or as little as they want. If you want to lurk and leave without announcing your presence, it's your choice. Or you can leave a comment when something resonates with you.

I'm still a newbie and somewhat of an outsider in this blogging community, but I feel like some of these people could be friends in real life. So, I laugh with their jokes and mourn with their losses like every other loyal reader out there.

And I've learned, while I may read a blog for a tickle, I should be better prepared for a sucker punch if and when it happens.