The learning curve for mastering Second Life is rather steep as I will be the first to admit. So, as always, my solution is to read a book on the subject. I bought one at the
bigbox bookstore, the only one they had at the time, although I now own four of them. Then I looked into what they had at the Vancouver Public Library. Not that many, however all of them were situated in the main downtown branch, so sight unseen I asked for them to be brought to my local branch, one at a time.
I browsed each of them and learned a little more about Second Life, technically speaking, but then I read a couple which were more about the social/anthropological side of Second Life which I found totally fascinating. One gave the history of the online
MUD or multiple-player computer games which eventually evolved into the exceedingly popular
World of Warcraft (WOW) and into the virtual world of Second Life, not a game but a very social, creative, educational variation where everything is built and created by the residents. This I found very interesting for while SL is a new experience for me these games have been around and extremely popular for quite a while.
The second of these social books was
Second Lives: A Journey through Virtual Worlds by
Tim Guest. In this book Tim wrote mostly about the people, the companies and educational institutions of Second Life and whom he met both in Second Life itself, called in-world, and in real life.

Wilde Cunningham*
One of the SL characters/avatars he heard about was
Wilde Cunningham, played by a group of nine people, four men and five women, aged 30 to 70, with cerebral palsy. They are aided in this endeavour by one of their caregivers in real life, June-Marie Mahay, and Tim met up with her online character "at her place" in SL.
June-Marie explained that she helped out in a Boston, Massachusetts, day-care centre for the physically disabled, called Evergreen. One afternoon, she mentioned her online hobby, Second Life, to her group and they all were very eager to try it out. Together the group created a character by consensus, voting on each element of appearance: spiky red hair because they had always wanted to show off and orange skin as a form of racial compromise. They named the character Wilde, after the rambunctious group's nickname. Wilde loved their new online life. They met people, made friends, built an online gift shop which brought them real world income.
With June-Marie's help they began to spend as much time in Second Life as the bureaucracy of the day-care centre and their ailing computer network allowed. They were nine real souls inhabiting one virtual body: multiple personality disorder in reverse.
June-Marie told Tim how amazed she was at the change of the group after 6 months of Second Life. "They're so much more confident now, even in the real world."
She showed Tim the tropical island in Second Life that was owned and maintained by Wilde, a gift from a man called
John Lester, founder of Braintalk, an online community to support people with neurological conditions and their carers. While they were both in SL she introduced Tim to Wilde although he was a bit taken aback to find Wilde was a woman that day. June-Marie explained that they alternate playing two months as a man and two months as a woman, which the men find a bit tough, flouncing around as females, while the women have absolutely no problem with being portrayed as a man.
Through June-Marie they had a conversation with Tim, asking him questions about his life as a writer while he inquired about their feelings regarding Second Life. One replied that it was like opening a whole new world. He said it allowed him to have a voice and to say things important to him. Interactions for these people in real life are difficult because of their lack of language and the possibility that they can be dismissed because of their appearance.
Tim's conversation with Wilde ended with a question about did they enjoy sharing the same virtual self. The reply was, "Everyone enjoys playing together. We feel the most like the rest of the world that we have ever felt."
He wrote:
As Wilde, they were liberated from their daily plight. As Wilde they could walk. As Wilde they could dress themselves. As Wilde, they were eloquent, funny and mobile.
So Tim decided to meet them in real life, to visit Evergreen. There he found June-Marie, a freckly, frizzy haired redhead of about forty who introduced him to the group and then they went to the computer room to bring up SL and suddenly, there was Wilde projected onto a screen connected to the computer. As Wilde appeared, Mary, one of the group, said, "Look at me! I'm so beautiful!"
The director of Evergreen, Kathleen Flaherty, while initially unenthusiastic, later realized that she had underestimated the individuals in the group. "They've solved more problems than I thought they would...... They are just more alive. Second Life defines them."
Of course without June-Marie Wilde's help virtual life would be impossible for them She spends hours online herself making changes to their virtual world on the group's instructions. One of the members has a collection of virtual dolls in her house on the island which June-Marie has lovingly constructed.
On Tim's last day he had a private meeting with one of the women, with June-Marie interpreting as needed, where she explained what Second Life had meant to her. She said that people don't take you seriously in real life because of your handicap but that people should listen to the disabled. In Second Life you have the right to be who you are, she told him.
You can find a short 2008
update on Wilde Cunningham, for things have changed somewhat since the book was published. You will also find some of their writings at the link. Like this one.
trapped, by mary
i'm trapped inside my body
trapped inside this shell
while the outside doesn't look so good
the insides doing well
its hard to speak the words dont come
as easy as for you
how can i show you what i feel
or all that i've been through
i yearn to give and share and laugh
i ache to know a friend
i crave to tell you how i feel
that the lonliness would end
i'm trapped i'm trapped but so are you
tho perhaps you see it not
your trapped inside frailities too
your worries make you rot
take my hand oh feeble friend
for i am feeble too
together we can make the world
better for me, better for you
I know that this is a pretty extreme example of where Second Life can make a difference to someone's real life but it is not as uncommon as you might think.
The woman who started the UK Guild of Writers of which I am a member (they do have to have readers to appreciate the writers you know) has
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and finds in SL an incredible outlet for her creativity and interests which her health problems make more challenging for her to pursue in real life. She has built a beautiful area, modeled on some Scottish islands, called Milk Wood, without the cold and rain, but filled with flowers that never fade, deer in the woods, swans on the lakes, fireflies and birds, lots of chirping birds. Here she hosts poetry readings, authors reading their works, trivia contests, many different literary activities in the various venues she has built for everyone's enjoyment. She even has cottages for rent and a lovely market where people display their wares.
I have heard of people who are paraplegics spending time in SL and it seems to me that no matter how physically you are challenged if you have some means of using a computer Second Life can enrich your real life in ways that for the rest of us it might seem hard to imagine. Perhaps I'll be an old lady in a wheel chair one day, still visiting and enjoying my Second Life as JMB, seen above ready for Fall.
* Image from
here, the first part of a series of four articles written by
Wagner James Au.