Looks like I picked the wrong day to hit 30,000 posts.

[Maru Kitteh]

My original title for this post was "30,000 posts and 20+ years of change. I love you, DU community.” Then I opened my news. Market is crashing, Pope Francis died. So my timing is brilliant as always.

My account says I’ve been here since the eve of Christmas Eve, 2004. I know I had an account prior to that but I moved homes, had a computer that died and forgot my username or password, maybe both. I don’t recall exactly, it was a long time ago. I’m pausing for a moment today to recognize all that time and space, the changes in myself, my personal world, and the world we all share. Y’all, it’s a LOT.

Like most of us, I’m having all the emotions. I get scared. I worry most of all for my granddaughter, and I wonder is this the brief window available where I should be getting our family established in a new country, for all our futures but especially for her? After all, I exist because my ancestors survived, many of them by fleeing. My indigenous ancestors fled the Spanish invasion of the Oxaca region. My Jewish ancestors fled the pogroms of 19th century Europe and my Irish ancestors the famines of the 1840’s. I worry I will dither too long and miss the window and my grandaughter will suffer for it.

Through all of the changes in my own life and our political landscape,, I have found so much in DU. Solace, education, company, family, hope. It’s all here. We have professionals with experience in every field from medical doctors to oceanography to long-haul trucking. We are a wildly diverse (if somewhat older skewed) community of persons bonded over the simple idea that human beings should be treated well and with respect, and that as a society we should do things that further that idea as we are able. You are all precious, unique and wonderful people. I love you DU community. Thanks for all you do. Here’s to the next 30,000.