Jesus Tweets

There is definitely an art to tweeting.  The ability to say something precise and succinct in 140 characters or less is not an easy thing to master.  I still have a lot to learn about tweeting but I have to say that I do enjoy it!  I don't find tweeting to be shallow or a waste of time.  I think it's a matter of letting extraneous words fall by the wayside and getting right to your point.

Thousand of tweets ago, when my son helped me open my account, I first stared at the computer screen and thought, "What should I say?"  But you can't think about it too much.  You just have to do it.  Some funny, silly and informational tweets just roll off my fingers but others are a bit more of an effort because of what I want to say about something more important such as health, nutrition, grieving or healing.

I think people take to Twitter and find it so appealing because it lends itself to almost any subject.  Anyone can tweet and I think most people do.  Although until yesterday when I read a short Vanity Fair item on tweeting, I never thought about Jesus tweeting. 

 

But the idea of Jesus tweeting just strikes me as hilarious.

 

Picturing Jesus  hanging out in his robes with his Smartphone, intently looking at the screen while his thumbs are flying across the keypad is something that lends itself to a lot of humorous possibilities.  Think about it.  The internet is a global platform!  Would Jesus re-tweet anything that the Apostles or Mary Magdalene might put out there?

 

WWJT?

Who knows?  After all, as Jesus would say, "Goodness comes from within."  OMG, that's only 17 characters!  It's so tight yet there's room for much more to say! 

 

Don't forget about hashtags too!

You know Jesus would be great at that too!  What would he pick as a hashtag to "Goodness comes from within"?   Let's see. . . #Pure? #Christian? No, I think he would go with #MyMotherSaysSo!

Vanity Fair
August 16, 2013

What Would Jesus Tweet? A World-Civ Guide to the Succinct

By Bruce Handy

Twitter doesn’t really need defending. Like any medium of communication—e-mail, blogs, newspapers, books, talking, yelling—it’s as good or bad as the people using it and the ideas being expressed. But that said, I find it irritating that the 140-character limit has become easy shorthand for the alleged shallowness of contemporary culture, a digital analog (haha) to Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame. Or, as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel recently put it: “We need to think about the future for more than just 140 characters or 15 minutes at a time if we want to make real long-term progress.” In a similar vein, a friend and respected colleague of mine recently declared that seeking wisdom and insight on Twitter is a fool’s errand; that she wrote this on Twitter itself speaks to a growing school of self-loathing Tweeters, at least on my feed.

Contra Thiel, some thinkers might actually be better off sticking to 140 characters—right off the bat, Peggy Noonan, Leon Weiseltier, and Naomi Wolf come to mind—while my friend’s tweet made me curious about just how much insight and wisdom you can cram into 140 characters. Turns out, it worked great for Jesus, Descartes, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Fran Lebowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld.

 

A 140-character digest of Western culture:

 

I think, therefore I am. (24)

It’s funny because it’s true. (29)

I am large; I contain multitudes. (33)

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. (35)

Eighty percent of success is showing up. (40)

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. (47)

The vice-presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss. (55)

Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell. (58)

It’s not the size of the ship; it’s the motion of the ocean. (60)

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. (68)

Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. (73)

The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. (76)

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. (79)

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (83)

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. (113)

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (112)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. (117)

There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. (124)

There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. (123)

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. (130)
 

Tweeting A Mother's Life

Over 340 million tweets are sent and read each day.

 

In the midst of all those competing thoughts, messages and trending topics, Scott Simon posted a large number of tweets late last month that broke through the rush of chatter and caught the attention of  a large part of Twitter's world wide audience.

 

Simon, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday host, was sitting beside his mother's hospital bed and relaying intimate, tender and immediate thoughts about his precious time with his mother in the last days of her life.

 

I can't imagine having the clarity of mind to tweet while you are taking care of a loved one who is dying but I am thankful that Scott Simon did.  The immediacy of his tweets and the strength and love in each of Scott's tweets took my breath away.  Mortality is a touchy subject that scares yet enlightens us.

 

In turn, I think Scott Simon's tweets courageously shared such a heartbreaking yet basic human experience that the tweets must have made others stop and think about the loved ones in their lives who may be ill or have already died.

I wish Scott Simon grace and peace as he and his family mourn and cope with the loss of his mother.  It would be so much easier if there was a guidebook or a magic formula presented to us after a loss.  How reassuring it would be to know that if we followed or did certain things that ultimately all would be right with our world once again.  But life doesn't work that way.

Losing someone you love and learning to live without them is a roller coaster of a journey we all must eventually take and no matter how much love and support we have and how much time passes by, we have to learn to look within ourselves and figure out for ourselves the best way to heal and rebuild our lives.

 

Here are some of the compelling posts that Scott Simon sent live about his mother to his more than one million followers:

 

And here is the link to the Washington Post story about Simon Scott and his remarkable tweets:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/nprs-scott-simon-takes-twitter-to-a-new-frontier-his-mothers-hospital-bed/2013/07/29/44cc67ea-f86f-11e2-8e84-c56731a202fb_story.html

Unplugging & Tuning In To Each Other

Today we have a guest blogger, a fellow writer, Melissa Knights Bertrand.  In the interest of full disclosure, I work with Melissa's brother, Aaron Knights, and through being Facebook friends with Aaron, I am familiar with Melissa's writing for her local newspaper, The Buffalo News.

Melissa is the mother of three young and dynamic children and she has a beautiful writing style.  I have no idea where she finds the time to reflect and write about the unique things that happen to her and her children, but she does, and we are happy readers because of it.

 

Two stories she previously wrote that I shared on Cry, Laugh, Heal were Melissa's story about the memorial walk/run that was established a little over a decade ago to honor and support the memory of Melissa and Aaron's Dad who lost his fight with cancer (December 2012) and another story Melissa wrote in July 2012 about a handwritten letter from her Dad being a timeless memento (July 2012).

 

Today Melissa writes about the cellphones, iPads, iPods and Blackberry devices which are everywhere whether we like it or not.  Yes, these devices can improve the amount and the speed with which we receive  information from one another but that doesn't mean that we should use them 24/7 with no regard for others. 

 

We can't let electronic devices replace our much needed human connection.  I'm not talking about the casual and annoying connection I get when I am in the check-out line at the grocery store and I get to hear the conversation of the person behind me with their spouse or friend that gives me WAY more details about their life than I ever wanted to know.

 

I talking about the connection between people who care about each other or who are trying to be polite with each other.  Nothing can replace a face-to-face conversation.  That is when we look into another person's eyes and see the true meaning of their words, hear their tone of voice and pick up on the gestures they use to communicate with us.

 

And don't forget about quiet time.  No chirping, no tweeting, no loud and sudden ringtones.  No electronics is quiet time.  No electronic is healing time.  A time to myself, when I can think, when I can read, when I can breathe.

 

Off is not a permanent state.

 

You can always turn them back on.

Don’t Let Electronics Replace Real Interaction
By Melissa Knights Betrand
The Buffalo News.com
March 29, 2013



Melissa Knights Betrand

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” –Albert Einstein

After weeks of Christmas prep, school functions and charity projects, I scheduled a little “me” time late one afternoon and snuck out for a quick mani/pedi.

Armed with my cellphone, I looked forward to a full hour plus of Words with Friends, reading email and replying to day(s) old texts and Facebook messages. As I surrendered my hands to the angel before me, I had an experience that stopped me in my technological tracks. Another escapee, in full wet-nail mode, took an incoming call on her cellphone and proceeded to have a personal conversation … via speaker phone!

I listened to her chat with her hubby about whether she had picked up the raspberries and where they should meet to exchange cars, among other things. No shame or whispering that she would call back in a few minutes. They had an entire conversation, complete with irritated voices, and never a mention that he was conversing in front of an audience.

Upon reflection, I feel compelled to throw the tiniest of pebbles from my little glass house by proclaiming that I do believe cellphones and iPods are adding tremendous stress to our lives, destroying manners and short-circuiting the properly developed social skills of children at tender, young ages.

Look around any public place, from waiting rooms to restaurants, and you will be hard-pressed not to see most everyone with some sort of handheld electronic device. Instead of talking to one another, the world has become programmed to expect, demand even, instant gratification, often mistaking immediate electronic feedback for true connection and authentic relationships.

For many, this begins well before basic social skills and manners have been age-appropriately and fully developed.

Consequently, the unfiltered thoughts and knee-jerk reactions of children and adults can and do go far beyond what is typical of face-to-face interactions, often wounding, leaving scars and causing social repercussions that are sometimes irreparable.

As the mother of one teenage son and twin “tweenage” girls, the introduction of cellphones and iPods – which are thinly veiled iPhones when connected to Wi-Fi – into our household has added a heaping dose of drama and nearly driven me crazy.

Though these devices do entertain and make communication a breeze, I find myself in an almost constant policy-making position; policing, paring down usage and eventual docking times and locations almost daily.

In the midst of this madness, I’ve discovered that when infractions occur which result in the loss of electronic privileges, my children (after a period of withdrawal) become softer, nicer human beings who actually play and interface the good, old-fashioned way. Imagine that? I now find myself actually looking for reasons to take them away and, at times, I think they are as relieved as I am.

I must confess that what began as an attachment to my cellphone has blossomed into a full-blown love/hate relationship, causing me to evaluate even my own behavior. I am striving to walk the talk, however, and have begun to set firm boundaries about when I will and won’t let the demands of the outside world into my present personal time and relationships. Though I am a work in progress, the results continue to be eye-opening and have convinced me that we should all try a little harder to keep technology in its proper place.

If we strive to power down our electronic addictions, humanity just may prevail.

 

options

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

– Albert Einstein

 

After weeks of Christmas prep, school functions and charity projects, I scheduled a little “me” time late one afternoon and snuck out for a quick mani/pedi.

 

Armed with my cellphone, I looked forward to a full hour plus of Words with Friends, reading email and replying to day(s) old texts and Facebook messages. As I surrendered my hands to the angel before me, I had an experience that stopped me in my technological tracks. Another escapee, in full wet-nail mode, took an incoming call on her cellphone and proceeded to have a personal conversation … via speaker phone!

 

I listened to her chat with her hubby about whether she had picked up the raspberries and where they should meet to exchange cars, among other things. No shame or whispering that she would call back in a few minutes. They had an entire conversation, complete with irritated voices, and never a mention that he was conversing in front of an audience.

 

Upon reflection, I feel compelled to throw the tiniest of pebbles from my little glass house by proclaiming that I do believe cellphones and iPods are adding tremendous stress to our lives, destroying manners and short-circuiting the properly developed social skills of children at tender, young ages.

 

Look around any public place, from waiting rooms to restaurants, and you will be hard-pressed not to see most everyone with some sort of handheld electronic device. Instead of talking to one another, the world has become programmed to expect, demand even, instant gratification, often mistaking immediate electronic feedback for true connection and authentic relationships.

 

For many, this begins well before basic social skills and manners have been age-appropriately and fully developed.

 

Consequently, the unfiltered thoughts and knee-jerk reactions of children and adults can and do go far beyond what is typical of face-to-face interactions, often wounding, leaving scars and causing social repercussions that are sometimes irreparable.

 

As the mother of one teenage son and twin “tweenage” girls, the introduction of cellphones and iPods – which are thinly veiled iPhones when connected to Wi-Fi – into our household has added a heaping dose of drama and nearly driven me crazy.

 

Though these devices do entertain and make communication a breeze, I find myself in an almost constant policy-making position; policing, paring down usage and eventual docking times and locations almost daily.

 

In the midst of this madness, I’ve discovered that when infractions occur which result in the loss of electronic privileges, my children (after a period of withdrawal) become softer, nicer human beings who actually play and interface the good, old-fashioned way. Imagine that? I now find myself actually looking for reasons to take them away and, at times, I think they are as relieved as I am.

 

I must confess that what began as an attachment to my cellphone has blossomed into a full-blown love/hate relationship, causing me to evaluate even my own behavior. I am striving to walk the talk, however, and have begun to set firm boundaries about when I will and won’t let the demands of the outside world into my present personal time and relationships. Though I am a work in progress, the results continue to be eye-opening and have convinced me that we should all try a little harder to keep technology in its proper place.

 

If we strive to power down our electronic addictions, humanity just may prevail. 

options

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

 – Albert Einstein

 

After weeks of Christmas prep, school functions and charity projects, I scheduled a little “me” time late one afternoon and snuck out for a quick mani/pedi.

 

Armed with my cellphone, I looked forward to a full hour plus of Words with Friends, reading email and replying to day(s) old texts and Facebook messages. As I surrendered my hands to the angel before me, I had an experience that stopped me in my technological tracks. Another escapee, in full wet-nail mode, took an incoming call on her cellphone and proceeded to have a personal conversation … via speaker phone!

 

I listened to her chat with her hubby about whether she had picked up the raspberries and where they should meet to exchange cars, among other things. No shame or whispering that she would call back in a few minutes. They had an entire conversation, complete with irritated voices, and never a mention that he was conversing in front of an audience.

 

Upon reflection, I feel compelled to throw the tiniest of pebbles from my little glass house by proclaiming that I do believe cellphones and iPods are adding tremendous stress to our lives, destroying manners and short-circuiting the properly developed social skills of children at tender, young ages.

 

Look around any public place, from waiting rooms to restaurants, and you will be hard-pressed not to see most everyone with some sort of handheld electronic device. Instead of talking to one another, the world has become programmed to expect, demand even, instant gratification, often mistaking immediate electronic feedback for true connection and authentic relationships.

 

For many, this begins well before basic social skills and manners have been age-appropriately and fully developed.

 

Consequently, the unfiltered thoughts and knee-jerk reactions of children and adults can and do go far beyond what is typical of face-to-face interactions, often wounding, leaving scars and causing social repercussions that are sometimes irreparable.

 

As the mother of one teenage son and twin “tweenage” girls, the introduction of cellphones and iPods – which are thinly veiled iPhones when connected to Wi-Fi – into our household has added a heaping dose of drama and nearly driven me crazy.

 

Though these devices do entertain and make communication a breeze, I find myself in an almost constant policy-making position; policing, paring down usage and eventual docking times and locations almost daily.

 

In the midst of this madness, I’ve discovered that when infractions occur which result in the loss of electronic privileges, my children (after a period of withdrawal) become softer, nicer human beings who actually play and interface the good, old-fashioned way. Imagine that? I now find myself actually looking for reasons to take them away and, at times, I think they are as relieved as I am.

 

I must confess that what began as an attachment to my cellphone has blossomed into a full-blown love/hate relationship, causing me to evaluate even my own behavior. I am striving to walk the talk, however, and have begun to set firm boundaries about when I will and won’t let the demands of the outside world into my present personal time and relationships. Though I am a work in progress, the results continue to be eye-opening and have convinced me that we should all try a little harder to keep technology in its proper place.

 

If we strive to power down our electronic addictions, humanity just may prevail.