what works, from a different angle

This is not a personal progress report.  I'm inspired to write something more like a State of the Union (Blogosphere?) Address, inspired by a few of my favorite internet writers.

I think that some of us start blogging as a relief valve; our nearest and dearest frequently have NO need for -- or interest in -- our particular dietary interventions, and merely talking to ourselves is less ... methodical.  KEEPING TRACK OF THINGS, organizing our thoughts in such a way that it makes sense on paper -- that's the way to formulate a viable hypothesis when it comes to improving our bodies' functions.  What's likely to be productive for us, what will REALLY improve our health and well-being?  The slap-dash methods "normal" people can get away with can be disastrous for "us."  We use internet blogging as an off-site journal -- record-keeping that others can access too.

And we RANT!!!  :-D  It's very satisfying (and not particularly destructive) to express one's righteous fury to the aether!  The aether doesn't file for divorce, fire our asses, cut off our allowance, or throw us out of the house.

Whatever the reasons each of us has for writing, somewhere someone can learn and benefit from our experiences and ruminations thereon.  The more i see, the more i'm convinced that this is important.

The bit is, although we're not really UNIQUE snowflakes, there are very few with our particular challenges to be found, and finding others like us CLOSE TO HOME is almost impossible.  ...Shit, try to find salsify or sunchokes in your local grocery!  Try to find non-goitrogenic greens in KingmanFrigginKansas!*  Ask "normal" people about diet?  Expect to hear nothing that won't make YOU suffer and lose ground.

Well, thanks to blogging sites, i've FOUND a comparative abundance of people whose knowledge and experience is of value to me, and whose personalities are not painful to bear, but are reasonably congenial.  Not here in my town, of course -- one is in Ireland, and one in New Jersey, others in California, Washington, Colorado, and Scotland, various places in Europe, several in England and Canada and a couple in New Zealand, and ... lots more in places i don't know.  The nearest ones are at a considerable distance -- not people i can spontaneously go meet for lunch!

So we have collected our own special international community --welcome to the far-flung tribe!  Wise Women and Shamans:  we have experience of life outside the norm, we ruminate over what we've learned and we're able to communicate lucidly.  Gandalf once said something about people like us talking to ourselves because we tend to address the most intelligent person in the room ... but that's not necessary now, as we have each other.  Here we sit, ostensibly participating in a discussion circle of one, with the help of a machine which is hooked to other machines, in front of which are other people like us ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD.  Truly, the internet can take away the stigma of muttering to ourselves as we trudge along our accustomed rut, because on the internet even wackos have readers.  We're never completely ALONE unless we want to be.

And our un-met friends will be there to answer our questions, reassure and encourage us, and send us sympathy and best wishes because whatever it is that's troubling us, SOMEBODY has been there before, done that and come out the other side already.  Want to know WHAT WORKS or how to deal with whatever-it-is?  Just ask.  SOMEBODY knows.

I appreciate my friends i've never met!  I'm grateful that they take the time and trouble to share their wisdom.  They're another manifestation of what i've found in the more-immediate world -- most people are at least "good" and some of them are absolutely OUTSTANDING.

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*  yeah, once i was hungry for greens while visiting the MIL, and the only thing that came close was bagged spinach....