Community

I had the great honor of being on the Doctor Anonymous Show last night. As usual the chat room crowd was rowdy--er--lively and we had some great callers, including Adam who has a new blog at Day of the Doc.

The best part of getting back into blogging has been joining the community of health care bloggers. To enter Doctor A's chat room, feeling a bit nervous about the prospect of going on air, and then to see familiar names greeting me--in the internet equivalent of backslapping and raising of wine glasses--well, even if it was all happening in virtual time, it made me realize: I'm part of something now.

When I started this blog, it was like germinating a seed: those first few words were like the initial, pale sprout that pokes out of the earth in early spring. Then I joined Twitter, left a few comments on posts, joined Facebook, joined LinkedIn, left more comments, read Grand Rounds, invited other people to read Grand Rounds, left comments, asked questions, met up with Dr. A's chat room every week--and each of these activities were like the growth of little leaves from an ever-lengthening vine. As my vine got longer, it encountered vines from other bloggers' communications, chats, tweets, posts, and now the vines are linked by those little tendrils that join plants together. Now, I know this analogy is getting burdensome, but you can see what I mean: the medical blogging community is a living, organic network and now it seems as though my writings are bound up inextricably from those of Ramona, Dr. Rob, Vijay and all the other bloggers. And the more I participate in this network, the more I see that we are sharing more than mere words, but also hopes, ideals, aspirations--our common humanity.

For such a solitary activity, blogging is bringing me together with a lot of like-minded writers and doctors. We're social animals, aren't we? The drive to form community is so strong, it takes place across continents, time zones, and call schedules. It's good to belong to something like this. Thank you for having me.

Comments

[CancerDoc]

You did a great job. I was impressed by the sense of community in that chat room, although one always has to keep in mind that are oddballs like me lurking in the background :D

[Dr. Rob]

I mean "goofball" in the best sense of the word.

[rlbates]

Theresa, I feel the same way. Thank you for including me.

[Dr. Rob]

That is probably about 80% of why I keep blogging. Some of my best friends are online. You have just fit in well with the rest of us goofballs.

[Doc]

Thanks for the nod. Very nicely done last night; good show!