How and where did you find this blog?  The internet, of course.

And that is the topic of this week’s Wednesday’s Wondrous World.  The amazing, incredible, uncontrolled network of binary code that we refer to as the internet.

Few things have changed the world quite like the internet has.  For all its follies and foibles, the internet is one of the most amazing wonders the world has to offer.

Wait, stop, hold the phone, you might be thinking.  Shouldn’t “wondrous world” cover natural things?  Thus far, that’s been my angle, but all wonders of this world, natural and manmade, are to my mind open to this weekly exploration.

What makes the internet so wondrous?  Once you get past the porn and the LOLcats and other useless memes and games and such, the internet if full of information on pretty much every single topic you can possibly imagine.

Need to know how to convert centimeters to inches?  Want to translate a phrase from English to Latin?  Want a recipe for salted caramel chocolate chip cookies?  Want to put the name to the face of that actor on TV?  Want to understand how an internal combustion engine works?  All it takes is opening a web browser and exploring Google or Bing or other search engine to find these.  In seconds.

Certainly some of the information out there is a total crock.  As one of my favorite TV commercials likes to joke, “They can’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true.”  “Where did you hear that?”  “The internet.”  And certainly you can find far more speculation and opinion than fact across the web.

That’s not the part that makes the internet so wondrous.  It is the instant ability it gives us to find information.  Whether you are on your computer, mobile phone, iPad, tablet or any other portable device, in a matter of seconds you can look up directions, maps, history, recipes, fiction, ,music, games, and almost anything else you can think of.

You no longer need to find a book, make a trip to a library or a municipality to research information, it is instantly available to you.  Almost anything you could want is found somewhere in “the cloud”, waiting to be accessed.

You can keep a journal online, rather than carry a paper book for it.  You can share your thoughts with friends or even see them across the world using the internet.  And I am pretty certain we have only just scratched the surface thus far of all the capabilities of this wondrous tool.

Don’t get me wrong, I am an enormous fan of books and libraries and museums and less-evolved means of record keeping.  I am also a fan of the arte of conversation, rather than just texting and messaging and e mailing the world.  There is still great value in these things, and they should not be replaced by the internet.  But it can surely augment and supplement them.

While arguably the internet has taken away human interaction in many ways, it has also found new ways to bring us together.  Where in the world are you, dear reader?  Somehow you found your way to this Chakra Center blog, and not only my posts, but all the other authors and contributors offerings here.  I know we come from all around the world, different backgrounds and perspectives.  Yet we have much in common, shared on this blog, and I would hazard a guess that you share those commonalities with us, too.

The internet.  A unique, still-evolving wonder of our world that is closing the gaps across nations and cultures, and bringing us together in ever-increasing ways.

What were you doing online that led YOU to this blog?

I am MJ Blehart, your “Wednesday’s Wondrous World” wordsmith.  Every week I share a wonder of this amazing world, and I hope you will enjoy the journey with me!

Check out my blog, The Ramblings of a Titanium Don, for more of my work.

Also now available, Pathwalking: A 21st Century Philosophy in Book and Kindle form!