Sometimes the Internet drives me crazy. 

It can be such a dark and dangerous place, giving anger, violence, and hatred a place to fester.  It is a scary place for parents, who often feel like they are living in a state of perpetual fear of cyber bullying and predators.  It is challenging for all of us to learn how to protect our children from the potential harm that exists there, while empowering them to use the Internet as the vast source of information. 

But at the same time, I also love the Internet.  

I love social networking sites, because it allows me to stay in touch with people who are important to me.  Without Google map, I would figuratively and literally be lost!  I love searching recipes and adapting them. I love reading blogs, shopping, and being able to translate something I have written into another language.  The Internet allowed my family to gather around the computer this past August and watch the Mars Rover landing.  Researching a product on the Internet before I buy it saves me time and energy.  I love having the latest world and local news at my fingertips and I enjoy reading my (7!) magazine subscriptions on my ipad.  Because of the Internet, I have learned how to fix a leaky tap, make a perfect hollandaise sauce, and fold a fitted sheet. 

In order to reconcile my love-hate feelings toward the Internet, I try to remember that it is just a baby, having only been around for about 40 years, and being only accessible for most of us for about 20.  Because of it's youth, we can not throw it out as an entirely bad or good place.  We have so much to learn about it, how to use it, and how not to.  Our electronic enlightenment age will be the stuff of history books (or e-books?!) someday and we must be mindful of the stories we are creating towards that history. 

Today, in this one 24 hour period, the news stories dominating the Internet are, no surprise, sad ones: death, murder, trials, war, and abuse.  And yet, as I weeded through them, I found one of the best examples of how much potential the Internet has to positively change the world.  It is a video by Shane Koyczan, who says he made it on a budget of "love and compassion" and the link is below.  It combines the best of creativity with art and the spoken word, but by sharing it on the Internet, it has to power to reach many.  It is a beautiful piece of art, found when I least expected it.  Enjoy and pass it around.
http://upwr.me/W94EYg 


wishing you beauty,
Heather