Anything can be Everything

I often like to say "When you have nothing, anything can be everything."

Value given is often much smaller than value received, most particularly when it comes to information.

Everything you know about SL; about gestures, animations, sounds, streaming media, clothes, scripting, building, walking and talking, sims, servers, avatars, attachments and more; All of that is more than most of our new residents do.

They come in, knowing very little, hungry for knowledge of the least little things that we have come to take for-granted. An answer to a simple question might mean very little to you - you already know it, after all - but may be a major revelation for the querent.

A tiny grain of information (to you) can make or break the whole deal for Ima Newbie. You may have saved her hours or days of research and school-of-hard-knocks learning. We all value our help so cheaply, because it is a small thing to us. A quick answer. An item of little moment. To Ima, these are big things. They are the very secrets of the virtual world around her. They are the key to her being effective, happy, successful (by whatever measure she places on that), and adjusted to her Second Life.

If you have ever answered a question for another resident, new or old - given succour or aid or information to one of the many so very human beings in the virtual world we inhabit together - take a moment to be proud of what you have done. You have made a difference to another person. You have changed another person's life.

If it is your self-appointed task to do this daily, or weekly (as an SL volunteer, either official or unofficial) then you honour us all. Your compassion, knowledge, and willingness to exercise both should not ever be overlooked, or undervalued. Least of all by yourself.