A Night For Conversation

Meeting people and having interesting conversations is very much apart of the Second Life experience.  Let’s be honest, it a big part of the reason many of us first came to the world in the first place.  Some days are more conversation-filled than others.

Last night was a night of interesting conversations for me, conversations that make one think about people and openness in a virtual age.

I was spending some time at home in Westmoreland, trying to write some informational pamphlets for the Nature Preserve, when the sound of the front door opening startled me.  Normally I keep it locked unless I’m expecting company.  But, I suppose I had forgotten to lock it again after my last guests.  Getting up from my desk, I opened the door of the study to find a tall, well-built blond with a large silver rocket pack inspecting my drawing room.  I might have appreciated the courtesy of knocking before a stranger entered my home.  But, I was prepared to greet his presence pleasantly.

At least until the conversation turned to the mystic.

It seems my unexpected guest had been searching out Atlantis.  The lovely island next to mine is the island of Atlantis Rising and apparently he had come exploring after visiting there.

I have never hidden my witchcraft practices.  I see no reason to.  This is not the seventeenth century.  If I wished to make a secret of the fact that I am a practicing witch, I would not include such a statement as A Writer. An Artist. A Woman. A Witch. A Storyteller. in my profile.

Still, just because I am up front about the matter does not mean it feels any less like prying to be asked what my spiritual gifts are withing the first ten minutes of making my acquaintance, while making assumptions that prove most of the knowledge the questioner possesses about the subject must have come from a bad television show and too many fantasy novels.

1. Calling me ‘glenda’ [sic], then asking if I’m a ‘good witch’ is not likely to win you any points — especially after I digest the image of all that pink tulle while glancing at my own gothic red and black ensemble for the evening.
   
2. The fact you have been attacked by ‘wiccan covens’ who were ‘not good’ is going to make anyone with knowledge of such things either wonder what you did to piss off multiple covens or belive you have no idea what you are talking about as true wiccans follow the ‘an ye harm none’ rule from their crede with  zeal.
3. Providing the above information as a reason for asking if one is a ‘good witch’ usually only serves to put that person on the defensive.  Non-wiccan solitary practitioners like myself tend not to like either the position, nor the comparisons.
   
4. Simply telling me you are trustworthy does not make you so.  Nor does getting huffy at me when I insist you earn such trust rather than being able to instantly ‘feel your spirit’ and know.  Clearly you are not even willing to spend the time to dig beneath the surface and get to know me.
   

A friend at work once said I was the most private person in social networking he’d ever met.  I have a profile on most networks, yet I reveal little of the real substance of me to more than a select few, despite the public way in which I live my online life. But, I don’t trust easily, in either the virtual or the real worlds.  Life has given me no reason to.

Then again, maybe I am cold and standoffish.  It would not be the first time someone has thought so.

“If I wanted to play mind games, I’d buy a Rubic’s Cube.“  ~~ Acheron Parthenopaeus