I've been checking in on wplace every week or so. I was always a bit dissapointed by other iterations of group pixel projects - I was expecting original creative works in this new, interesting space, but I guess the only thing that gets enough people together to maintain are already established fandoms and nation states. These shrines we build... I was hoping with the introduction of it being on a map rather than a blank canvas, it would encourage novel developments, but apart from some exceptions, it is mostly the same.

Little interactions with geography, congregations of a tv show's setting, and distinct local favorites do pop up, but mostly from city to city, country to country, continent to continent it's the same things. There is something a bit beautiful though about being able to drop a pin on any little town, and not being able to tell where it is. The culture of Ottowa, Bogota, & Manila are more similar than they are different because the culture most important for web users is online and shared (also partly due to the first fandoms finding out about the site being able to populate the place - taking over and getting a big headstart)... Another thought creeped in similar to my older thought as I've gone over this living collection. We put a lot of our love into fiction.

These characters we create and spend so much time with. These characters we spend hours reading and thinking about. These characters that we contrast with our lives and carry with us. These characters that we love and that we worship. They never hear our prayers. So much of our love, so much of our energy, so much of our compassion is being poured into those that cannot feel it and cannot reciprocate. The hours we spend worrying about a character in a book go through their struggles. How many days we spend listening to their insecurites and joys. How much unfiltered attention we give them. We empty our stores of emotional compassion towards those who do not need it. Shouldn't we be giving this energy, these hours of care & affection to those that can love us back? Shouldn't we worry and fret about those really suffering - those really in trouble who need help?

Feeling powerless in the face of overwhelming terror cannot be a beautiful tragedy. We need a place where circles close and stories end. A place where emotional catharsis can occur unlike our messy world of 'wounds and loves unresolved.' (we cannot forget, the author is also alive, art as communication, art as a tool) Their perfect lives as mirrors we carry with us. Worship is purely for ourselves. We scoff at extreme cases of obsession, the contemporary gawking sideshows, but so many of us today keep fictional character art or pictures of celebrities, who will never know us, right next to framed photos of our family. The phone background of a lover replaced with polygons. Is it a natural defense mechanism to supplement something missing, or is it the egg that came before the chicken? (I'm not the right person to find the answers to this for many reasons, one simply being I'm not knowledgeable enough about any of the kinds of subcultures that are known for the far end of this spectrum)

Maybe the worship and unrequited nature is part of the appeal. You can't be too obsessive with love of a real person. We cannot worship each other (that does not lead to a healthy relationship), we need someone separate - beyond us. If you don't have a divinity to worship, that part of your being that yearns to worship needs an outlet. One day English may revive or create more words for love so that we can again have more nuance in these areas. One of them I think needs to be this kind of worship-love, because it is different than eros or friendship (though I guess maybe 'adoration' & 'veneration' fits). Even pair-bonded couples in long relationships don't obsessively draw each other over and over again. However, across all ages people have carved the Buddha, painted Jesus, and inscribed the Sun over and over again, their whole lives - and just the same, people are not done drawing Hatsune Miku.

However, I think a major difference is the personal expectation of worship, which is very dissimilar. There is worship that is spurred on by hoping to get good favors, fearful of punishment, genuine love alone/communally, or looking for signs in response to prayers as a means of dialogue (whether or not the deity being worshipped is 'real' or not is inconsequential as the lived experience is the same either way). Then we contrast this with truly one-sided relationships where the person knows they will not be hearing back. When god isn't watching you, no one is, you take it on entirely for yourself. This makes these two different types of worship extremely different in experience (although they are still similar in often featuring the feeling of being 'lesser than' or 'unworthy' of the object of worship - the etymology of which is literally that which gives worth). This realm where people take part in this act of worship and what they gain from it (positive or negative) I want to keep an eye on. Most simply, it must be remembered: to give love, to give praise, to adore, often feels just as good, if not better than being on the receiving end.

Sidenote: Deities as a replacement for what was lost after childhood. Holy fathers and mothers. The desire for choices to be made for you, a path to follow.