My aborted attempt at Project 365 notwithstanding (I got to 15 days; I’m proud), I really do like Flickr.  And it isn’t really for the ability to post my photographs and have total strangers talk about them.  Really, it isn’t.

I like Flickr because it gives me a glimpse of lives I’d never otherwise get a chance to see.  Take, for example, the chap who recently made me a contact, for no reason I can discerne (I think we own the same camera).  Being curious, I’ve had a flick through his photos and profile.  Now I’ll never live in Romania.  I’ll probably never even get a chance to go there.  But simply by looking through the parts of his life he has chosen to share with the world, I can get a taste of what Romania is like, and how he lives his life.  And he seems happy, which makes me happy too.  So while I’ll probably never go to Romania and certainly will never meet him; I feel connected somehow.  And through that connection and others like it, I can feel connected to my species and my planet. 

And that connectedness is something very special indeed.

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