I took a break from Second Life for a couple of days and spent a nice Christmas in the real world. I even soaked up some Christmas cheer.

Unfortunately, my in-world Christmas was tainted by an incident that caused me to do things that left me with a great sense of loss. I wasn’t going to write about this incident, but this is my journal and I need to record what has happened because it is part of the life of an avatar.

Let me start by saying, I try to be as kind as possible in both my real life and my second life. Yes, of course I have conflicts and upsets with people, but I like people and try to find ways to have as many friends as I can, to be as good a friend as I can and be as a good member of my groups as I can. If you know me, you know that this is true.

When you try to be kind, you run the risk of being misundertood by people who see kindness as weakness. And every once in awhile someone enters my life and tries to draw me into their world and into values that I don’t share. In these situations, I try to create a safety zone in dealing with them, but sometimes there are people who won’t let you create that safety zone.

On Tuesday, a person in my okiya did something that forced me to realize that she had been harboring hostility toward me. What she did was an act of overt disrespect, actually, more than one act that left no doubt in my mind that there was no way I could ever work with her again. I won’t go into the details of what she did or what I did in response. I will say that what I did in response was decisive, and to demonstrate how serious I am, I have quit the okiya.

Leaving the okiya is a great loss to me and coming on Christmas eve it was heartbreaking. However, if the person in question learns a lesson or the okiya leaders realize that there is a problem, then what I have done is a service to the okiya. I have nothing but great respect for the women in my okiya, especially our Okaasan and my Onesan, Masumi san. However, I have left, won’t be returning and have no regrets about actions I took.

I have no plans to join another okiya at this time.