At this point this is where I make some personal observations about therianthropy, online. If you don't wanna read it, then don't. ;) Won't break my heart.

The "community" used to be chock full of anger, factionality, and tension - anything used to make it go snap, and there was a lot of emnity and bitterness happening. Things change, though. We all took a good look at things, early in 2004, and declared a cease-fire. The BS had to stop. And it did...but very little came of it.

I used to say here that we needed a change of perspective, if we were truly to become a community. We needed to look outside ourselves, rather than inward all the time. I used to feel it had begun to happen - that'd we'd stopped collectively asking "who?" we are, "what? we are, and moved on to "why?" we are? But the whole thing stalled...and as life went on, people dropped out, to be replaced by newer faces, still asking "what?" and "who?".

It could be that we just get older, and busier, and can't be bothered. We are still people, after all, with jobs, morgages, bills, friends, spouses, children, and all the other responsibilities that come with life. I know for myself I have absolutely no desire to try to post on bulletin boards or talk on MSN with people who in some cases have less than half my life experience, for whom life is still trickling towards on a filtered basis, whether that filter be school, living at home, being under the age of majority, or simply not being able to care for themselves yet.

So, really, little has changed. There's new terms now. There's new "definitions". There's lots of nomeclature and other nonsense that people can play with and hide behind. The "community" has yet to take what I think of as the next step. We still have endless cycles of the same old questions, and rotating circles of new faces. No-one really sticks around too long, simply because of the level of burn-out or boredom the "community" causes. We're still running around in loosely-organized factions, some of which get along with others, and some of which don't.

Me, I've chosen the path of many before me; I've left the "community" behind for good. Over time my experiences held less and less in common with others, and my voice became unwelcome in public spaces. So I have chosen to withdraw. I decline to identify as "therian", or "were", or whatever. I don't have any interest in discussing it with strangers. I'm comfortable with this. *I* haven't changed. I am still who and what and why I am. I'm just not interested in waiting for anyone else to catch up with me anymore.

Be who you want to be.