A guest post from Mudflats Moderator Jamie:
In this day and age, friends are often hard to make, hard to keep. We move around so much, changing careers, changing towns, moving across state or to another continent. We have less and less time, time taken up by the hustle and bustle of daily life, work and family. Friendships are often fleeting, it seems to be so complicated to find the time to meet people, join groups, machete through the jungle of rules and constraints put upon us by an ever-changing society. And then internet happened.
From the beginning, since my husband set us up with e-mail addresses and a google search engine, I have always been somewhat afraid of all the new technology, funny thing coming from a girl whose father helped put men into outer space and eventually onto the moon. But little by little, I grew into bigger shoes, understanding my computer’s potential for opening up new worlds to me, allowing me to learn about the world beyond my doorstep or create my own space or talk and debate with other people outside of my own city. I created my food blog and connected with fellow foodies all over the world, I followed a passionate Presidential election alongside fellow political animals and caring Americans (and fellow citizens of the world), I wended my way over to Facebook, hooking up with old school and youth group friends, friends made through the Flats, through various great food blogs and friends met through friends. And now I have found my place among them.
I think that behind the safety of our computer screen, we open up faster to people met over the waves, we are less afraid to show our true selves without the social functions and free of all societal barriers and rules. We met here on The Mudflats with a common passion and a common cause, trying to work together to jump-start a flagging country and find our true American soul, buried under 8 years of lies and greed, entire communities left out in the cold, our collective back turned against the rest of world.
Mudflats gave us a place to share and express ourselves, debate and disagree or inform and share common ground. Coming here we already started as something of a family, long lost or unknown relatives at some huge family reunion, never having met before yet having a common tie, a bond, a unifying factor. We made friends easily, finding like-minded souls and kindred spirits. Passionate and engaged, we none of us had trouble revealing our true selves or seeing each other as we are. And change did indeed come and here we still are thanks to the tidal wave of hope and excitement that has swept through the Mudflats family. And family we have become, supporting each other, laughing together, creating a network in Cyberspace that overflowed to real life!
I was rather shy and extremely self-conscious growing up, never really feeling as if I had anything in common with those around me, always searching for something bigger. I had a hard time fitting in, dressing the part, going along with the crowd. I buried myself in books and bided my time until I could escape. Yet everywhere I traveled I still felt as if I hadn’t quite yet found my place in this world, a place alongside fellow idealists, people willing to shake things up a bit and change the status quo, a place where people were less interested in what job you had or what school you went to or how you dressed or how many cars you owned, but rather interested in what made you tick, what you believe in.
This I finally found here at Mudflats. The folks who gathered around AK Muckraker and her golden pen had no pretensions, didn’t judge, listened carefully, shared openly and laughed together, cried together, and worked together. This is what real friends do. And I had finally come home. Isn’t it an amazing thing, internet? For those of you who follow my blog, you know that I love to cook. Cooking and baking are my pleasure, they are both soothing and invigorating at once, my way of offering a bit of myself to all who sit at my table, my way to say everything from “have a great day” to “thank you” to “I love you”.
So to show my love of Mudflats and everything it has brought to my life, the friendships I have forged, the people that I have come to love and consider family, I have created a special treat, a treat I would love to share here in my virtual kitchen. This is my own version of the mud pie which I have dubbed Mudflats Pies in honor of my first internet friends found here on Mudflats : a deep dark chocolate base like the mud deposits on the bottom of the coastal wetlands and mudflats found both in Alaska and outside of Nantes, a creamy layer of coffee ice cream, representing both the murky waters of Alaskan politics and all the coffee drunk by nameless bloggers and forum members over at the ‘Flats, and topped off by barely sweetened whipped cream, a fluffy layer like newly fallen snow through which tiptoes chocolate moose and other political animals. For the recipe, follow me over to my blog Life’s a Feast.
