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Our First "Organic" Member

A week ago, member haiku joined the Holonation. This was a significant event not just because of the fascinating experiences she has shared with us. But also because she is, I believe, the first member who is a not a direct "six degrees of separation" contact of mine.

That is, I (peter) was the first person to sign up as a Holonation member (not surprising since I built the site). My sister, drLove,  was the second.

Then, as far as I can tell, every person who joined Holonation since is a friend or relative, or a friend of a friend, or, etc., of myself and/or drLove.

That is, until haiku joined last week. I think haiku found Holonation through searching for information on the Enneagram, stumbled onto my unfinished book on that subject,  then worked her way back to my personal website, and came here either via the Holonation link on my homepage or the one on my blog.

One of the very first things haiku did after signing up as a Holonation member was post her fascinating Testimony At the Threshold of the Tao. To be specific, she signed up at 4:35pm and posted her Testimony at 4:56pm. As she explained in that Testimony, "I wrote and posted the following article at http://autumnhaiku.newvine.com only a week ago."

Stepping back, what does all this mean? One thing it means is that haiku, like all Holonation members, is a person with wisdom to share. Further, it means haiku is comfortable with the Internet as a medium for communicating her wisdom. So comfortable that she posted her piece on another site, then signed up to this site, and re-posted it as a Testimony. This is a person who is comfortable with the ways of the web.

I suspect that most of us current Holonation members are not so comfortable with these ways. In my own life, at my breakfast table, I regularly have conversations with my wife and mother-in-law dealing squarely with a topic germane to Holonation. My mother-in-law will ask a question, and my wife will say: "Post that question on Holonation!"

But you know, even though my wife knows that that would be a good idea, even she hasn't signed up as a member yet. As far as I know, she hasn't signed up as a contributing member for any sites on the Internet.

I think that stance typifies not only my wife and most Holonation members, but also most of us who are older than 30-something. We didn't grow up with the Internet -- emailing, chatting, blogging, podcasting, texting, etc. So to many of us in our 40s and beyond, the Internet seems strange.

Specifically, the Internet feels strange as a medium for self-expression. Email is just an extension of the letters we wrote as children; online shopping certainly tries to mimic mall shopping; even IM and chat have analogues in our telephone conversations from the 1970s.

But blogging? Podcasting? Wikis? Through these Internet media we share our thoughts, feelings, art, beliefs, and experiences with the whole wide world. Which among us in our 40s and beyond remembers doing anything even resembling that back when we were children?

And yet, at bottom, this is precisely what Holonation is. Holonation is a set of community blogs (Experiences) and a wiki (Conditions).

The current median age of all Holonation members is 46. That means that the typical Holonation member was going through puberty some time around Watergate. Those of us on the North side of that median remember the Sixties. We remember that time as one informed by a shared dream of youth. It was a dream of peace and community; of love and wisdom.

Today, if the television is our primary medium, it might seem that that shared dream is long dead. But it's not dead. Our children have revived it. They call it the Internet.

Sure, the Internet has more than its share of the venal, prurient, and profane. But at the same time, it is also filled with beauty, love, and wisdom. At bottom, the Internet is nothing more and nothing less than a mirror reflecting us people as we are.

But as of 2007, it mostly reflects our children. That is, sites the content of which arise from the site members are dominated by teens, 20s, and 30s.

Spend a few minutes on YouTube. Browse around. One thing you'll quickly notice is that a certain juvenile sentiment predominates.

But dig deeper on YouTube and you will find the most precious of jewels. You will find the sort of love that animates; the kind of wisdom that sparks curiosity; the type of beauty that brings tears to eyes.

Today, Holonation is a little island of unreality. Among our 23 members seems to be not a single juvenile flamer. Should the Holonation grow substantially, surely we will see some of that ilk. Even so, that will be an interesting time of a different sort.

But today, all we have in the Holonation is a collection of people who have lived long enough for wisdom to percolate. Which brings me back to haiku. Read her Testimony, At the Threshold of the Tao. I don't how old haiku is. But I read her Testimony and I say: "Children, rarely if ever, write such things."

This is what I say about pretty much all of the Experiences shared on Holonation. With only 23 members, we already have a tremendous store of wisdom on this site.

But I know there is much more within each of our heads and hearts, and in that of others like haiku who will stumble across this site.

These are the fun early days of Holonation.