What I Learned from Miney

             Some people step away from their online presence with a big, drama filled dust-up, or do the shock-overnight-exit; some make a long fond public goodbye, and others disappear gracefully. It's a choice all of us eventually will make, and there is no right way to do it, for behind the screens and scenes, a life our virtual friends can only hazily perceive is going through concrete changes. When someone moves on, we, the friends left behind, have a duty to respect and remember.
           One of the most intriguing parts of virtual life is to muse on the names people pick for themselves. It is a little romance about the character behind the avatar. 
           Minethere Always, or Athanasios, is one of those names full of hidden meaning. You know you're dealing with a poet, with a life full of incident and feeling. That's the first thing I learned about Miney. 
           And while we might guess at some illness, that's not something that she brings into the conversation, though sometimes, her avatar hints at great pain. Finding an artistic way to describe suffering with immense elegance, that's a second lesson Miney taught me.

           Showing up, participating, encouraging others with that +1 in Google plus, or a warm comment on someone else's work. Being the co-founder of HG Vizionz magazine, together with Sunbeam Magic, an inworld journal that has done so much to promote the people and places of the hyperverse. (Note: at the Lani mall on OSgrid you can find the full archive of Visionz issues, if you're missing a few - the magazine recently celebrated its 3rd anniversary).

           Beyond the editing, proofreading and writing, Miney has reached out in many ways. Coming to dance at the Cornflakes parties last February, when perhaps it was neither easy or convenient, but in order to be there for other people - there's another valuable lesson.

          It's OK, to very occasionally troll someone who's just asking for it... I can't lie, Miney taught me that one too.
          I learned from her blog, no longer online, about the joys of bringing long audio files into opensim - begone the mere ten second snippet. 

The music of Yes We Can

           About a year ago, Miney, (also known as Isolde)  invited the Safari group to her 'Yes We Can' region on Metropolis, and introduced us to Rhudean, the city at the center of The Wheel of Time fantasy series, begun by author Robert Jordan. 

          Another lesson learnt - the existence of this wonderful literary world, and how, with just a few prims and some striking terraforming, it's possible to conjure up the essence of a dozen or more novels.

Yes We Can region, Metropolis

          Knowledge and friendship and kindness are like water. Precious, refreshing, they never really go away. They flow and are recycled and return on other tides, to other shores. 

           I know, as she slips away from the online and the virtual, Miney may not read these words, and I know it doesn't matter. For in her heart, she knows what has been shared and what has been valued. 

Minethere on Vector's Vortex

           That's what I learned from Miney.