These are the people in your neighborhood.

The whole blogging thing is insane. I often find myself thinking about or praying for people I know only through the world of blogs. I have never met these people. I will probably never meet these people, yet I'm interested in their lives.

I don't have a huge circle of bloggity friends like some other bloggers I know, but there are people out there that have struck a chord with me for one reason or another.

So when I made an attempt to get caught up with the gaggle of blogs contained in my Google Reader and I found this post at the Feminist Breeder, I felt absolutely giddy. I've never met her. I don't even know that much about her. I can't even remember how I came across her blog initially.

Yet, whenever she updated, I checked her pregnancy ticker to get an idea of how much longer she had. When I saw she updated and that she had a successful VBAC, I was absolutely thrilled. When I read she had to go into mama mode to fight the staff to do it, I felt both awful for the treatment and proud that she didn't let herself get taken advantage of.

It's a very odd thing. I don't really know this woman. I've never met her. I don't know that I ever will. Yet I hoped and prayed for a good experience for her and now that I know she had one, I'm absolutely ecstatic for her.

She's not the only one. There are other bloggers out there that I often wonder about. Sometimes, something in my day will remind me of them--remind me of people I've never met. In some cases, these are people who grew up in my old stomping ground. Some actually live near me. I may have passed them on the highway, yet I know them only through the updates they post on their blog. Some live far far away from my little corner of the world, yet I feel connected to them. That connection was initiated by a series of words let loose on the internet.

How odd that something seemingly so simple can have that effect! How wonderful and heartbreaking that we as humans are wired to work in such a fabulous fashion!

During high holidays once, our former rabbi pointed out how technology can isolate people. He used the examples of those who become so tangled in their video games or e-mail that they forget a real world exists. He also pointed out how technology can bring people together. He used a specific example of members of a message board banding together to donate money to help a fellow member whose son became suddenly ill.

I'm often aghast at how vicious people can be online. What in the world makes people think they can say the things they do? Why would people post some of the horrible insults they throw at others online?

How we use technology is up to us. It can help us repair the vessel, or it can be the hammer we use to destroy it.

The tool it becomes is completely up to us.

For me, it's super glue and I find the phenomenon bizarrely amazing.