proactive shrine-building
This lesson from Tuesday's Child's memorial for Jon the Bunny, "Spacehey's Unofficial Grandpa!", stuck out to me:
This just goes to show that just being there for people will cause a community to gather around you.
My immediate thought was, while this may be true for Jon, how true could that be for people like you and I? Better yet, what did Jon do to earn that communal grace from the people around him? Well, let's dig into what Tuesday's Child had to say about him:
He was active daily for four years.
He influenced people to keep going all the time.
He was, i suppose, my first re-occurring blog reader, so he deserves a space on my site.
Jon also made it a point to wish people a happy birthday when he could.
I didn't know him. But I knew his presence. Everyone did. If you go to his wall, you can see that so many people were worried when he went quiet.
Speaking of his wall, I can't help but think of his comment section as a shrine of sorts. His Spacehey friends from all walks of life and across the globe visited to pay their respects. There's a sacred aspect to it that makes me wish to live a life deserving of similar reverence. No matter your take on the afterlife or a lack thereof, it can be nice in this moment to think that you and your legacy could be positively remembered. Perhaps it's worth constructing spaces and orchestrating interactions conducive to that now versus later. Later doesn't exist. Also, this blog of mine doesn't have a guestbook nor comment sections...
Unfortunately, I could only see the 20 most recent comments from his friends without an account. We will make do with that. What had he helped them out with?
classconsciousness said:
Damn, Jon. You were the first person I met on spacehey. You welcomed me and we had the chance to even chat for a bit. I'm devastated to hear that you're gone, man. I miss seeing your posts pop up on my feed.
Ama Arson said:
thank you for always interacting with me and listening to me. i wish i had come back sooner. your comments had been a source of comfort for me many times, more than you probably knew.
How can you broaden your world such that it contains more people like Jon? A persistent, welcoming, and celebratory soul can liven things up in ways you didn't know were possible. Them taking initiative as your first encounter within a community ought to amplify their impact on you. Could you even integrate those attributes within to share with your people?