eminerale

This is an appreciation post for the value of the SG community and what’s happened since FRED’S GAUNTLET@FREDHINCANADA has been a true friend to so many people here, including me, and with his Gauntlet he’s been scattering the spirit of friendship here on SG like some kind of Canadian pixie.

Nothing’s been the same since coronavirus. Did it change any of your lives like that? It seems crazy to say it when it’s nearly 2025 now. I’ve known I needed to get outside. But people here have made me realise there’s an ‘outside’ I haven’t even been considering. My apartment isn’t the only thing I’ve been captive to.

Before coronavirus, the danger of getting lost in myself was mitigated by all the things I used to do. I’ve done so much voluntary work. Really cool and meaningful projects I’m so grateful I could be part of. My friends and both my brothers were still living in the same town as me. Coffee shops were my favourite haunt, but I was also capable of solo travel across Europe. If one day I woke up and I wanted to go to London, I went to London.

I was still struggling all the time with depression and mental illness that made my life chaotic and hard. But it was a life. I recorded music in the studio with my schizophrenic best friend. I watched flotillas of Chinese lanterns drift across the sky above the river on fireworks night. I juggled flower sticks (circus art form) in the park in the summer, and I fell down a hill in the snow in front of so many people. I walked with people, literally and metaphorically. I laughed and cried with people. People were in front of me.

I hadn’t realised quite how much I missed that until Fred’s Gauntlet brought new friends into my life here. Now, it’s like how you feel most alone immediately after someone leaves, or when you didn’t realise how thirsty you were before you got the ice water out of the fridge. I’ve accepted a level of isolation I should never, ever have stood for. And I don’t think I would have, if coronavirus hadn’t happened. I’ve never even had the covid virus, but it transformed my life. I know that so many of us have struggled with isolation and disconnection. It’s like an after-pandemic. And it’s been a problem much longer than that. @DONCELLA ’s WEB COMIC Koji’s Childhood is a stunning, emotive and beautiful example of how early alienation and dislocation often begins. @WOLFWOOD1203 ’s BOOKThe Ones Left Behind deals with the isolation/connection theme in a unique, beautiful, post-apocalyptic way. And just read anything @DICENTRA writes if you want deep, honest thinking mixed with comedy, innuendo and a lot of heart.

And what I’m realising is that I have to learn how to be with people again. Not just being in a room, but taking in information and letting other people populate my mind and thoughts again. Showing up.

In the end, falling into yourself is a form of death. Have you experienced this? I’ve always taken inspiration from the Matrix so I’m trying to just believe I can get back up. “Free your mind.” And this SG renaissance is like the kiss of Trinity that restarted Neo’s heart.

“But one of these days it’ll come right back I’ll get over myself and I’ll tell myself that I don’t have to wait to be happy when I’m old. And one of these days I find a way to fight the waves, embrace the pain and paint the ages a hundred shades of gold.”

Ethel Cain

“And it feels like, time’s elapsed and I’ve stabbed lifein the back. I’m searching for what it means, to never be anything, anything.”

John Frusciante

What has SG done for your life? Will you blog about it? I didn’t know whether to include tags, as by definition they exclude, but special thanks to @DICENTRA for going far above and beyond in reaching out to me, and being an amazing new friend 🩵Thanks @BERLIN_2013 for reading my story and @WOLFWOOD1203 for sharing your novel. @HEADSHOT genuinely makes the world a better place. @THANATOZ is so lovely, the kind of person you’d remember if you had a chance encounter one summer day. There are soooo many cool people here in the comments too, and I hope I get to know you better. I think SG just attracts a lot of awesome people. And of course thank you to every single SG and Hopeful who all create the sets that we love, and that brought us here, and that light up the whole site vividly with every imaginable kind of beauty 🖤❤️🩵

The world is such a dark place now. SG runs counter to that. If anyone is struggling in the hinterlands of isolation, keep fighting. And reach out.

After the gauntlet, the beginning…

Thank you @FREDHINCANADA