h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Arpeggio,

I've been kind of wanting to post a message to you for several weeks now, I guess... But to be quite honest the whole multiple personality syndrome thing intimidates me because I've never seen (I say seen rather than met, because while I've visited your page and website, and red a few of your conversations, I've not met you yet) anyone like you before. I read all of the scrolling marquee list you have on your h2g2 page (which took much longer than I anticipated), and I stick by my assertion that there's only one of me in here lonely as it may sometimes be

But anyway, I didn't come here to talk about issues I may or may not have about comprehending MPS... really the first thing that made me want comment on your page weeks and weeks ago was the fact that you have that musical ladder picture on your personal space; I do as well.

Today I read your comments on lurking and they prompted me to do actually go ahead and post this...

So, hello.

Joanna

Hullo Joanna,

Thank you for saying something. It really is very much appreciated, you know.

I realise that the position I'm taking on the lurking issue is not a generally held one. I wonder how many people *would* say the same things, if they thought any purpose would be served. It seems to me to be rather reasonable, to consider the 'net to be a sort of extension of, rather than alternative reality to, Real Life. Or I could just be weird. BOOGABOOGA!

I'm going to post a poem/song lyric I wrote, a long time ago, when I first met the 'first' multiple person I thought I knew. The fact is, we are everywhere, just like gay and lesbian people. Multiplicity is a whole lot more common than most people have no idea.

Maybe it will help with comprehension. Also, my partner has joined h2g2, and he/they is also mp. They're working on a sort of 'primer on the basics of mp' to help the world understand. Their home page is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/U180337 and the article is just in outline stages at the moment. Have you any idea how tiresome it is to have 'experts' debating one's *existence*...

People are basically just people. We are 'out' about the mp, not because it makes us 'better', 'more interesting', or 'stranger' than other people, but because it informs our whole world view, in the same way that race or religion might. A friend here is Afrikaaner, from South Africa, and for him to not mention that would be to omit a huge part of his reality. Otherwise, where one is from is about as important as eye-colour, or whether one uses a wheelchair or not, or how straight one's teeth are. Since we have made 'educating' people about child-abuse and other issues something of a personal mission, we think it is relevant. When we go shopping, the only way it is relevant is in that we can never make up our mind. The sales-clerk doesn't need to know *why* we're so indecisive.

Please feel free to ask questions, no matter how silly they may sound to you. We realise there is a learning-process taking place here. Please also tell us about yourself, and talk of other things. Life does not revolve around us and our mp... gawdferbid! We'll check our your page, and see how you used the graphic. It's a pretty one. It has all our favourite colours, and the Moon has always been a friendly sort of face to us, since we can remember, and we have sung since before we could talk intelligibly, which was early (9 mos). Singing meant we were still breathing. This was proof we were still alive. And singing was a way to make noise safely; who doesn't like a baby who sings? It certainly made us happier than going !

Very sweet of you to say hello. Thank you. If you have kids, we never did and just love kid-stories.

Talk to you later,

Arpeggio, for LeKZ

Hi Arpeggio,

As far as the lurking issue is concerned, I personally would very much like to know whos reading all the stuff I write, but I'm not overly bothered by it because I can read back, and it seems to be too much of an effort to go to to try to find out...
I always wonder how long the conversations on h2g2 might last, and what a historian might make of it all some day...

I just read your partner's entry on MP; its very interesting to think of it as the far end of the line which you start out on when daydreaming... ...I try to see my way to what it might be like to have multiple people in my mind with me, and the nearest I get is a story of me from when I was a little child, and had done something wrong. When challenged I blamed it on the 'other' Joanna.

My burning question on the subject is *very* personal, however, and please don't answer unless you really want to 'cuz it may seem rude...
In a relationship, suppose someone with MP falls in love either with another multiple or someone who isn't, do all of the inside people tow the line? I mean, can you get a situation where one alter really likes someone and one really dislikes the same person? Or does that not make sense?

Singing I love to sing, I've always sung since I can remember, and if when I have a baby s/he sings I'd be delighted! I haven't got any kids; I promised my primary school teacher when I was 7/8 that I wouldn't have a baby until I was at least 24, so I still have three and a half years to go, or just over I really want to have a child when the time is right, though - I stayed with my second cousin last weekend in London when I went to the h2g2 meetup, and she has a 15 month year old son, who's so so sweet! He'd be walking across the kitchen, where they have a big mirror, and he'd catch sight of himself in it, and pull faces at himself in the mirror and generally laugh and try to get into the mirror world... I don't know how much he realised that he was looking at himself, though. I wish I could be as entertained by a piece of wood or a mirror as a small child like him can be...

Take care,

Joanna