(BTW, I invite anyone and everyone in this tribe to post separate threads of their own with questions, comments, observations, complaints about how the rest of the world just doesn't "get it", and so on. Be creative and remember that you are among kindred spirits! *smile*)

When do you feel the most alive? You may feel free to respond to this question in a sexual context if you wish, but that is not necessary. Besides, such experiences may be beyond words! I know that they are for me, anyway. *ahem*

What makes me feel most alive is feeling CONNECTED to another person. For me, that occurs most often through written correspondence, first because that is my preferred way of expressing myself, and second because writing is my sole method of communication with my closest friends, many of whom I have never met in person, nor have I spoken with them on the phone.

In these days of instant gratification via e-mail, there is nothing more I enjoy than curling up with a good...letter. I am fortunate to have some friends who, even though they have ready access to e-mail, prefer writing me long, long snail mail letters. Receiving such letters makes me want to drop everything and respond right away! Yet writing the proper response, after careful consideration of each word, sentence, and paragraph in my friend's letter, can take a week or more and *lots* of paper and ink!

I also feel very alive (in a state of heightened sensation, one might say) when I unexpectedly hear from a friend of the past. A few years back, I heard from a guy with whom I had taken a college course in particle physics back when we were in high school. Twenty years after the fact, and remembering only my maiden name, he was able to find me on the Internet. That he should have thought of me two decades later made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :-) And I dropped everything I was doing and immediately wrote him back.

And then there are those e-mail penpals who make my heart flip just to see their names in my mailbox...

Denise