Are Chat Rooms a Thing of the Past?

After a Summer that has made me understand, for the first time,
the people who join enclosed monasteries and take a lifelong
vow of silence, I don't much feel like chatting on the Net.

Perhaps the inner silence of the photographic image has entered
into my soul? Charles Lamb's relationship with his wooden desk
comes to mind.

Considering the rows that have taken over in some chat rooms in the past,
perhaps we have all reached a Zen-like distance and have wandered off
"elsewhere" to consider the virtual lilies of the field.

Or could it be that, finally, the water (that has temporarily stopped falling from a leaden sky) has affected the collective synaptic system?

Even gender issues (hotly debated in the link in the title bar here)
seem dull when the possibility of going on holiday and not being able
to return is being presented daily on the mainstream news.

I sit here, contentedly working on photos from
the National Ploughing Championships of 2007.
Long may this gentle state of mind last...