A meal with friends takes on special meaning in 2020.

Kind Readers~

Although I live in the same city as my whole ‘real life’ family, this year we didn’t get together. I dropped a couple special dishes off at my fathers, and one of my brothers… then went home to a roast instead of a turkey. Cooking for myself, I kept it simple. Then I called a couple other family members on Zoom as we all ate in our respective homes.

2020 is the Year of the Pandemic. It has devastated the economy, locked down whole communities, and disrupted industries because of radical changes in people’s behavior in response to Covid 19. And this holiday season, it’s kept me from my family.

So it was unexpectedly joyous when an Ahern Welcome Area regular, Jesús, decked out the public space with fall colors and a picnic table holding an entire Thanksgiving meal.

I know some of us are from countries and cultures that do not celebrate the holiday, but many of us do. And hanging out in Second Life this morning had the feeling of being in a casino on Christmas — fun, but wrong. Then Jesús put out his spread, quietly, and several of us just sat down at the table because it felt right.

The chatter turned to things we are grateful for, and family that we all miss. We talked about favorite dishes, and role played passing the gravy boat. The mood was instantly lightened and familial. We couldn’t be with the ones we love, but we were perfectly content to love the ones we were with. It was one of those magic moments that sometimes sneak up on you in Second Life — you don’t see them coming, but they are moving and you know you are part of a community.

Meat Carver molests a dinner guest with a pink dildo.

But it couldn’t last forever in Ahern, not with the griefers that congregate there. Enter ‘Meat Carver’ in a Mario avie, sporting a big pink dildo. Being completely unoriginal, he targeted a young woman regular for public sexual assault. She moved away several times, and asked him to stop. She tried sitting in a hard to reach place, and just avoid him, but he was persistent so she logged off.

Like a drunken uncle who is a registered sex offender crashing your party and no one can kick him out. A Second Life holiday tradition, and a perfect metaphor for 2020 — the Year of the Pandemic.

~HEARTUN