# Small Stones

The early web, for me, was full of surprises and the opportunity
to read things written by people very much unlike myself. It was a
place for synchronicity.

I have become old. Slowly, and then all at once. But even the
young seem to be growing disillusioned with a web where everyone
reads and recommends the same products and ideas, and the infinite
variety of life is reduced to picking from a small menu of
lifestyle options.

I do not recall the date I first started blogging but I do remember
how small that virtual world was. Bloggers were so rare in the UK
at that time that one was able to maintain by hand a virtual London
transport map where individual online writers could claim the stop
closest to where they lived. I was Angel Islington. Most stations
remained unclaimed.

I stopped blogging long ago. Deleted my traces. I use the web
without delight.

Recently, however, I have found myself rediscovering some of that
early spirit as I explore what is sometimes called the small web.

The rediscovery gives me hope.

It also makes me want to participate again. Quietly.