Time is all we have.  Each day, we arise at whatever hour it may be, and
we live out our days.  We think of the people we've known, the people
we've never known but have read about and the people we would enjoy
meeting before our days are done here on Earth.

Through Usenet, I've had the incredible opportunity to meet up with the
ideas of countless individuals ... some I've been able to identify with
and others I could not ... but, I've met up with all sorts of characters
over the past nearly dozen years.  

And in the realm of the TMJ people ... I've met up with them only since
1984 ... because even though I became one of "them" in 1983, I didn't
know it until much later.

I have a brother who has been my partner online since 1994. Had it not
been for his awareness, it would have likely been at least a couple
years more before I found my way here... if ever, I suppose.  Many
people have wondered about us and why we do what we do.  I just can't
answer "why?"... we don't always have answers to the question, "why?"  
But, I do know that through that "thick and thin", he is still there and
I am still here.

As for why I'm here, some of the people who have come to know me online
and off, understand that since there are only so many (so few) of us ...
if not for our words, our experiences would be lost in translation.

And so, if I am lost in translation, what am I to do except walk on?  I
have brought my efforts to tell a story about an iatroepidemic together
.. and if not for the talent of my brother, the story still would have
been nothing more than a fractured collection of ideas and arguments...
or flamewars.  Instead, together, we were able to turn the heads of who
knows how many dental professionals... and now, all these years later,
there are many who understand why we needed to tell a story.

We are far from the enemy's of dentistry.  It matters not the tale of my
woes ... or the tale of my brother's woes ... it only matters that a few
people listen to a particular story and believe in its possibility as a
truth.  And with that truth, they can carry on to spare at least some
people from certain hardships that we, my brother and I, have tried to
paint upon the face of usenet.

Sincerely and best wishes for the new year,
Webby