I have signed up with several Mexico message boards over the last few months. This is my first experience with this particular medium. I suspect that most blog readers know what message boards are. You find a topic of interest and share information with supposedly like-minded people. Something like a group mail box.
What I have discovered is that each group tends to have its own personality – dependent on the membership. For instance, almost every Mexican town has its message board. These boards have a very chatty, in-group feel to them. You really need to live in the community to understand the exchanges – exchanges that generally have the feel of a Methodist social (even though “naughty” topics -- such as, the best “gentlemen’s” club -- creep in now and then, to everyone’s giggling delight).
Now and then I run into a local group that has a broader scope on what it means to live in Mexico. There are even philosophical discussions on etiquette, anthropology, or history. These boards often have the faint smell of cherry pipe tobacco in a faculty lounge. One of my favorite forums in this category is Veracruz Forum – a witty, amiable group always ready to make a point and share insights.
But, like all communities, there tend to be seedy bars where community members hang out because they probably have trouble fitting into other social environments. I belong to two message boards that fall into this category. They tend to attract people who believe that they know everything, but, in truth, have little experience to share with others.
Let me give an example. A woman wrote a very timid posting indicating that she was moving to Mexico with her handicapped husband, but she had certain fears for her safety. Obviously, what she needed to hear was that the city she was moving to was safer than most American cities and that with the usual cautions that people use in their lives, she would be fine. Instead, she got a series of stories about beatings, robberies, kidnappings, and physical disfigurement – all of which had either happened to the tellers or to their very close personal friends and neighbors. Most of the stories sounded as if the tellers had missed out on a couple days of medication.
I felt sorry for the story tellers. They obviously have control issues in their own lives. But I felt even worse for the woman who had asked the question. She had stumbled into the local dive thinking she was in the reference library.
And I guess that is the point of this posting. My good friend Andee of Life in Chacala was fond of saying: “If you can help someone out – why not?” That is why I enjoy all of the comments posted here. They are meant to be helpful and informative. And when the comments are also witty – even better.
Why not? Indeed.
