Saturday, August 08, 2009

Small World Wide Web

Sometimes, the web makes things seem much closer. There are people I've only met through some internet this or that, and I feel that I actually know them. There are people whose words I've read, and not even typed back to, and I feel I know them.

The Fat Cyclist is one of those folks; I've been reading his blog for a couple years now, off and on, skipping and then catching up. Except for the past couple weeks, I haven't skipped.

For those who read Fatty (his nom de blog) regularly, you know that Fatty's wife Susan Nelson died the other day of metastasized breast cancer after years of chemo, radiation, surgeries and suffering.

I'm not the only one who feels the smallness of the web about this; there are over 2000 comments on his post announcing Susan's death. Sure, some of those people knew Elden before he became Fatty, or apart from his blog, but lots didn't. And I bet there are lots (like me) who didn't respond with a comment.

I don't know quite what I want to say; it's like I'm mourning a fictional character except I'm not, and I know there are family members with very real pain.

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