For Whom The Bell Tolls: The Strength of the Community

I've been trading some comments with Joanne at Death of a Pancreas.

I've been in technology for a fairly long time, and I spend a *lot* of time with computers.  One of my friends once described me as "the kind of nerd other nerds aspire to be", and he meant it as a compliment.

I have been reading and following a lot of blogs for a long time, and I toyed with the idea of starting one myself - I just wasn't sure I'd have anything useful to say day in, day out.  Then I was diagnosed with diabetes and I've got plenty to talk, think, and write about.

The big thing that pushed me over the edge, though, was reading several of the other DOC blogs - the standard stuff, like Six Until Me, some of the dLife blogs; Lee Ann's The Butter Compartment.  And several others.

They all have different, but very valuable voices, which come from different experiences.  Some have grown up with diabetes, some have children with it.  But the important thing is that we can all learn from each other, and we can all see that our hopes and fears and triumphs and frustrations are very similar, despite the particulars of each case.  And that's a very real strength in this community, and which makes me happy to participate in it.

I'm a big fan of Linux, the Free/Open Source operating system.  I originally picked it up because I was a novice computer science student, but it was Unix for a PC, and to a young CS student that sounded like magic.  The interesting thing about Linux, though, is that it is driven primarily by an online community, people who volunteer to improve it in various ways, and to help those who are new get accustomed to it and get the most out of it.

Of course, spending time with Linux has helped me immensely in my career, but I have also had the opportunity to give back to the Free/Open Source community.

My current favorite Linux distribution is Ubuntu, which is a Swahili word.  "Ubuntu" is one of those words that is very hard to translate directly into English (I'm told, I'm no Swahili scholar), but I'm told it approximately means "I am who I am because we are who we are."  It's part of the same mentality behind the expression "It takes a village to raise a child", and Donne's great "For Whom The Bell Tolls".  Linux is strong, and improving, because of its community.  And I really appreciate what I see from the Diabetes Online Community as well.

How can you not chuckle at the #Diabetesfacts, if you have it or live with someone who does?  How can you not love Shugasheen's "All The Diabetics" riff on Beyonce?  Different voices, but with a common cause.  I can relate to them, and I hope some of you can relate to what I'm writing here, too.