Message in a Bottle #2 - The Cat's Pajamas

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Introducing the Isle of Write: Creativity from the Cabana

Message in a Bottle #2
Origin: The Isle of Write
Sender: @jrhughes
Recipients: Steemit Creatives

Hello again from the sunny shores of the Isle of Write! In the coming days I or my lovely island cohabitants, @authorofthings, @carolkean, @geke, @lenadr, @pegasusphysics, and @sunravelme, will be taking the time to share in greater detail the various projects that are growing within our community.

We'll be going in depth about @MarianneWest's Five Minute Freewrite and how it has changed the face of writing and broken down barriers of insecurity and fear for so many on Steemit. We'll be sharing the particular elements of @vitkolesnik's teacherless writing group: Steemit Impact Feedback. We'll also be giving you a good rundown of how exactly to seek help or feedback in any of our various workshops, since different workshops have different methods.

But right now, I--Just Jess (@jrhughes)--want to take a moment to share with the greater Steemit community my deep and sincere gratitude to someone who does not run a group or moderate a channel, but is perhaps our most active visitor. "Pish posh" I say (stealing his fabulous phrase), visitor is a poor word choice. Rather, "fixture" or perhaps even "cornerstone." Yes, a cornerstone as it may grow moss, and how he does love green.

Also, cat gifs

With that last little hint, surely anyone who has spent time at the Isle knows I am talking about our resident Thunder God, who kindly keeps the storms at bay and is known on Steemit as @geekorner. Do yourself a favor and check out his amazing blog full of breathtaking poetry and all kinds of smart stuff about Steemit and money and such that I'm really trying to understand.

And I'm getting better because he spends plenty of time discussing it with members in the Crypto Chat Channel. That is, when he isn't in The Pub, greeting newcomers and making sure they leave word of which color of the rainbow they want to join their name to. And he almost never tries to convince these impressionable newcomers to join his cult of green.

Almost...

When I thank him he will remind me he likes to talk and I will accept that is part of it. As a lifelong chatterbox, I know the signs and I've never been more grateful. The server is getting busy and all of the founders live in the US. Luckily he does not. I mean, like, for the time zone thing not that we wouldn't want him here.

But it's far more than a self-interested loquaciousness that spurs him. It is clear to me his time answering questions, helping newcomers, and sharing tidbits of wisdom, arise not from a desire to be seen and heard but from a genuinely generous heart. When he says he likes to help, I can see it is true, in not only the time he spends, but the quality of his interactions.

And while I know all of the founders are grateful for that help, I wanted to be the one to write this post, mainly because of a single comment.

The Isle is new. We only really started to share the location openly this week. But as we were brainstorming what kinds of places we would love to see, we conceived of such things as the Comics Cave. Granted, there haven't been any folks yet who write comics or want to use the cave. But it's there for anyone who does. A new member, happening upon this unoccupied space called the lack of use "sad." I like to be conscious of the fact that not everyone gets their nuance across in text, but the message sitting there, "wait is this the only comment here?..this is just sad" made me sad!

Time for more cat gifs since this is a post for
@geekorner...This is basically how I imagine his relationship to cats

I didn't respond because I wasn't sure what to say. "I'm sorry we didn't stock each room with prefab people before folks came?" It seemed just logical to me that a new community would have open spaces to fill with new souls. So I said nothing and tried to forget about it and focus on the many very active places on the server.

And then I peeked in, eyes squinty as though it would soften the horror of the words, and saw this:

We create places for people to create. There is no sadness in it. So when people arrive, they'll find the home already built for them to fill with their sounds

And I'm not going to lie, I teared up a little bit.

So thank you @geekorner (aka Thunder God) for "getting it" so well and caring enough to articulate it better than I ever could. And one more thank you to the fantastic @techslut who sent this blessing to our shores.