I had been thinking about letting go of Syncretia for quite some time. An announcement by Linden Lab stating that non-profit/educational sims would be expected to pay the full price starting from January 2011 catapulted me from apathy into taking a final decision. And although Linden Labs reneged upon their initial announcement very quickly - within a matter of days in fact, for me the decision was taken and I am not going to be renewing the lease, which is up on November 25th.
And, quite frankly, I am relieved.
The problem with Syncretia is that what I made gives me too much of a feeling of permanence, of being a really real place. Nothing can be deleted, and nothing can be added to it. One could conceivably tear it down and start afresh, but I do not have the heart for that either. It is too precious a toy. Problem is, it is also a discarded toy since I no longer play there anymore. I have not been there in a very long time. It is just sitting there waiting for something to happen which I seem to be incapable of delivering.
I have been taking videos and photographs to document what I made at Syncretia. Will continue to do so until the last day, I suppose.
I have learned from Syncretia. When I build again it will be different. And that will happen at OSGrid from now on. Where I already have a sim. And a new identity. Hopefully a much smarter, no nonsense sort of me...