My name is Judith E. White and I am starting my first blog today, on May 18th 2020. With Between Oceans I want to show how diverse and equal we humans are and how we all have the power and talent to make the world a better place. On the 18th of each month I will ask JU’s three questions of the month, which will be answered by different people from all over the world, who are somehow connected to me on social media or in ‘real life’. Can’t wait to read about and discuss your strengths, spiritual insights and possible solutions for future challenges on planet Earth.
Time Space Compression
Ever since I was a child, I used to think big in my little world. I would have loved to share all the good things that I had with the whole world. Nevertheless, it felt too far away at that time. I could only picture in my dreams what it would be like to be able, one day, to connect with and travel around the globe. Back then, I could reach the wall phone in our house only on my tippy-toes. This was, together with the post road, the only link to the world out there or to the outland. We, the children, would be utterly happy when we would get a call once a year from overseas, from the cousin of my mother.
Some decades later, in the Internet-Email Age, I once came across the term ‘time space compression’. In 2009 I could feel and experience for the first time what it really meant to compress time and space evermore, when my then future husband Kim and I managed to start a relationship across seven time zones and 13,000 km thanks to Skype.
Long-haul flights and technical innovations such as video conferencing and many others made my childhood dreams come true. I could finally grasp again what once was a big world in my head – be it by gazing upon it from 10,000 m flight altitude or by keeping in touch with people in a very simple way across oceans and continents.
Connections
My travels and the intensive exchange of ideas with people from other countries and cultural backgrounds have always been a huge inspiration. It didn’t happen by chance that I started studying geography at the University of Vienna in the 1980s. In hindsight, it all makes sense suddenly.
To see our planet and its inhabitants as a whole, in spite of their differences, is still a peaceful and powerful thought for me, like a gift.
It makes it easier to understand why the rise of various social media channels was so exciting and tremendously liberating for me from the very beginning. For all criticism, I have always focused on the positive aspects of these technical opportunities, namely on their linking ability and the many learning possibilities, communication and expression forms.
In 2016 I completed a social media design training. On the day of the final exam, I posted a photo of my certificate on Facebook and, within a very short time, I got 131 likes from Facebook friends from around 27 countries. To me, this was the decisive moment to spark an idea for a blog, which I would write some day.
The world of Corona has made it possible for me now to find the necessary time and space to finally get started.
What’s the story behind the name of my blog?
Back in 2009, Kim showed me his wonderful home country, Western Australia, and brought me, a lighthouse lover, to Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of the Australian continent. Our eyes wandered across the sea, which seemed neverending from that point, where the Indian and Southern Ocean meet. Before that, I had never thought where exactly seas and oceans would melt into one another. And there I was, standing in awe of Mother Nature.
This moment has stuck with me ever since and inspired the name of my blog, Between Oceans.
I am a big fan of team work and I love to be able to focus on my strengths when I’m working or doing any other kind of activity. It brings me joy and fills me with energy to motivate others to connect with their strengths.
Once a month, I will invite three of my social media contacts to take part in this project by answering JU’s three questions of the month. These questions are related to current topics, individuality and spirituality, as well as issues for the future and planet Earth.
I’m looking forward to exciting questions, answers, insights, discussions and solutions.
Judith E. White
#BetweenOceans2020
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