Just for you… Here is a sneak preview of the new Phantom of the Opera set in The Purple Rose. Rehearsals are starting in earnest as we really want to get this off the ground and get going with it.
To have a recap on my thoughts from yesterday, I have been doing some Google searching (other search engines are available) on SL relationships, and I still have not found a positive relationship article. All the information is on how SL breaks up RL relationships, families, ruins RL lives… I attended a SL wedding recently. The occasion was perfect, the setting was perfect and it was a great example of RL love in a SL setting. Now I know that they are not the only couple on SL to be in love in RL too… So why is the Internet full of tales of SL being the end of RL love, life and relationships?
I have another couple who I am friendly with. This couple are partnered in SL, and have known each other for a number of years. Yet they have no need or want to meet in RL and their RL relationships are not disrupted by the SL love they have for each other. Is it so rare to find people who are so well grounded that they know the difference between SL and RL relationships and can manage both without forsaking the other? Love in SL, if you are perfectly able to manage it, doesn’t need to spill out and destroy your RL.
A lot of my SL friends have their own theories on this. I recently shared an article I found in a UK newspaper amongst my friends, an article which (once again) blamed a SL relationship on the breakup of a RL relationship. The most popular reaction to this? “idiots”. Maybe I am fortunate enough to have incredibly intelligent well grounded SL friends, whom I hope none of will fall into the SL relationship trap. Or is it that even with our seriousness of SL we know how to differentiate between the fantasy and the reality?
In my own experience, my RL partner knows what I do on Second Life. He watches me performing at the Rose occasionally, he listens to the music when I’m hosting an event in Dublin, and until recently he watched my avatar hang around with an avatar of the opposite sex. He has read the articles I have found and yet he has never assumed that it will happen to our RL relationship. Maybe he trusts that my psychological training will hold fast against this trap, but he is perfectly happy to let me continue to explore SL, and to be honest I think it annoys him that I can play and also listen to his conversation and reply coherently…
until next time…
