Missing Person

His last post:

Posted 5/7/2020 9:52 PM
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=4199138&g=4199143#m4199143&gsc.tab=0

There's other members I have been thinking of lately, that we haven't heard from in a while ... and maybe we can use this thread as a "shout out" in case any of them are reading.

So, hoping to see posts again from quite a few, including these comrades:

* Madagascar 63

* GMOOSE2

* Almost A 10

* GEOP

This is a start, and there's many more! Always glad to see posts from long-time members and new members, too.

Maybe others reading here want to post a "shout out" to a member who hasn't posted in a while.

CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Starfinder

Always thankful when we hear from our "sisters of support" and all the great ladies that have stood alongside us ...

Special "shout out" to our loyal member named "Celebrate Life" --- (a.k.a. Beth).

Beth --- we miss you!

Thankful to all our "sisters of support" here --- you are valued!

CYCLONE - # Iowa State University

Cashless. He was posting on the site that TA went to but he has not been there in a while either.

Paul

Also Argent, the Pathologist. A knowledgeable guy.

That's what's hard about the Forum. You wonder - are they doing poorly, did they die, did they move on to other interests? Maybe they got fed up with the antagonism, of which there is plenty.

I guess with most of us being older and having/had cancer, missing comrades goes with the territory.

Sonny still posts from time to time, regarding important developments in his situation. Particualrly when he feels it wil help others, which is typical of Sonny.

I am in touch with Bluebird and her husband, they are doing ok. I believe she is still here, just doesnt post much

and thats just a perusal of em...lol Good on ya Billy

mattam said...

That's what's hard about the Forum. You wonder - are they doing poorly, did they die, did they move on to other interests? Maybe they got fed up with the antagonism, of which there is plenty.

I guess with most of us being older and having/had cancer, missing comrades goes with the territory.

Exactly!

Per Logos: " ... notes from Plato's cave."

Plato's Allegory of the Cave might actually seem to apply to us here on the forum.

Odd thought? Yes, but bear with me.

You all know the account, summed up here by this description of the allegory from a website:

"In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall, the shadows, were real, and they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows."

Perhaps we here are actually like the shadows on the wall, being only usernames and text strings in posts. Names and typed words that are the only existence each of us has here, the only knowledge that most of us have or will ever have of each other here.

And while a few of us have actually met some of the others in person, and had then come to know the real people behind the usernames and texts, that is, the real people casting the cybernetic shadows that were all that we, like the prisoners, ever saw here, mostly that is rare.

Or perhaps some of us have a photo of ourselves online somewhere, and some others of us have seen it, but mostly we are, to each other, cybernetic shadows on a cybernetic wall.

Events such as GFMPH gatherings, where all the wall shadows are suddenly set aside, and reality is made perfectly clear, are like the prisoners suddenly being allowed to turn their heads around, to see the real fire, and the real puppeteers.

But in the meantime while we are here on the forum, we continue to see only the shadows on the wall, the usernames and texts of each of us here.

And perhaps that's enough. Perhaps the knowledge gained here, the humor shared, the support extended, is enough to justify why we come here, shadows aside.

But, still, I suspect that all of us from time to time wonder at least a little about what these shadows in this shadowy online world are really shadows of.

What has become clearer to me, as I'm sure it has to all of you, is that we have entered (been there awhile in fact) the age group where people we've known perhaps all our lives will suddenly vanish. I don't mean parents, that was the big shock of course, but peers.

Especially perplexing is the seeming loss of those with whom - like the members written about here - one has for a few years lost touch and who have, one finally knows, simply gone. In particular I have an old friend who lives in Austin and with whom I kept in regular touch and even stayed with on a cross-country trip a dozen years ago.

I've emailed and called. For awhile I was getting a voicemail. Finally I wrote an actual snail letter - first to where I thought he worked and then to his home address, which I'd lost and eventually found. Nothing back, even the home letter. I would have thought at a minimum that his wife would have responded in some way.

I can think of no reason why he would no longer want to be in touch and will assume that he's gone. It will remain a mystery.

There is another friend similarly, who moved back to the east coast some years ago from Los Angeles. Email, phone, finally a snail letter. And nothing.

I hope there aren't any more of these.

David

F8: that of course is true. I for one do not use a smartphone, only a stupid one. However in the cases I mentioned I tried every means I knew of.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother and it's a shame you can't stay in touch with old friends you had in common!