Things happen fast in Second Life (SL) – so fast in fact
that my friends and I joke about having SL whiplash. But if anyone had told me I’d be setting all my first life
projects aside for a month to birth a new island dedicated to HIV/AIDS I would
have laughed. First of all, I’m only an
adequate builder at best, and second what do I really know about HIV/AIDS?
“Ahhhh…..but you are a storyteller and woman of vision,”
said my sweet talking SL colleagues at The Alliance Library System who wrote
the grant that funded the island. “We
think you’d be perfect.”
Perfect I am not, but as they described what they had in
mind – an island dedicated to HIV/AIDS education, research, and support with a
special area dedicated to collecting and preserving stories – my inner ears perked up. “What about a giant screen set into the face
of a mountain that shows the pictures of those we’ve lost to AIDS?” I
suggested. “Maybe a field of story
flowers,” I went on, “and a flame of hope?”
By that point I was hooked, of course, and it was only a matter of
hammering out the logistics.
Planning, designing, and building an entire island in one
month was tough, but we had a very special reason for wanting to do
so – World AIDS Day.
Held on Monday December 1, World AIDS Day 2008 will mark
the 20th year in a row that individuals, groups, organizations, and
governments around the world have come together to renew their commitment to
eradicating HIV/AIDS. Here in Second
Life we will mark the day in a variety of ways, including the grand opening of our new HIV/AIDS island.
Christened Karuna, a word taken from an early Indo-Aryan
language, the name of the island embodies the desire to remove harm and suffering,
and to bring about the well-being and happiness of others. Karuna is funded by a generous grant from
the National Library of Medicine (NLM), administered by the Alliance Library System, and has
drawn the interest and support of organizations such as the CDC, NIDA, CFAR,
AIDS.gov and IBM.
From the start, Karuna took on a life of its own. Everything about the planning, from creating
and choosing a design to finding a builder who could execute our ideas, seemed
to fall effortlessly into place. Even
more remarkable, however, was how collaborative the build became with
individuals appearing just as their knowledge and skills were needed, donating
everything from raw files, scripts, and musical crystals to an enormous
400-prim model of an HIV cell.
As Karuna gradually took shape, everyone who visited began
to notice something else as well. There
was a restful, quiet feel to the island, or as one friend put it, “Karuna makes
me smile.”
Today, I think of Karuna as a combination resource center
and sanctuary where anyone and everyone can come to learn, refresh their hearts
and minds, and share their stories knowing they will be preserved and cherished
for years to come.
If you would like to join us for Karuna’s opening
ceremonies on World AIDS Day, we would be delighted to see you. The SLURL for the island and a link to the agenda for the
day are included below. I look forward
to seeing you.
Teleport to Karuna: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Karuna/60/106/26
About Karuna and World AIDS Day: http://www.karunasl.info/WorldAIDSDaySL/
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