I've been using and enjoying the social website Twitter, as TomVMorris, for about six weeks now. To my tremendous surprise, it's a distinctive and amazing experience. It's not about telling the world, or your fourteen followers, what you had for lunch. It's about building a new form of community. It's about learning. And it's also about having some fun. But the most important aspect of Twitter is that, if you do things right, you surround yourself with an incredible collection of people from around the world who are eager to share their insights and questions about life.
There is communal thinking on Twitter on a level and in a form I've never seen before. Almost every day, a topic comes up that causes me, as a philosopher, to ponder a bit, and then share the results of that pondering in the 140 character increments that Twitter allows. Today, someone mentioned Susan Boyle, the lady who has made such a stir worldwide with her recent appearance on the television show Britain's Got Talent. The You Tube video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY.
As I reflected and tweeted briefly on Susan and her lessons for the rest of us, people started retweeting, or passing along those short reflections to others. When I saw what touched people the most, and elicited the best responses, that in turn informed what I continued to think and tweet. While considering all the activity that these simple tweets generated, because of who Susan Boyle is and what she's shown us, I decided to use an extra blog post today simply to share these tweets, or twitter reflections, to provide an example of the unlikely musing that is now flashing around the internet, and also to highlight Susan's example for us in this forum as well.
These were all simple observations that were sent out a minute or so apart. If they stimulate your own thoughts, they will have done their work.
Keep in mind the 140 character format, if you're not familiar with Twitter, and the need for a topic announcement with each offering, as every one of them has to stand on its own or be lost in the fast moving stream of Heraclitean tweets.
Susan Boyle: The picture of courage. Immense self-possession. Perfect Centeredness. Inner beauty. And a spirit of fun.
Susan Boyle: My definition of actualizing potential by allowing the energy of the universe to flow through you.
Susan Boyle: One small person amazing, inspiring, and energizing the world.
Susan Boyle: The Imponderable, Improbable, even Impossible Dream empowering us all to reach and achieve.
Susan Boyle: Her wondrous spirit washed over that hall in a flash, enveloping everyone, lifting them up, and filling their hearts.
Susan Boyle: One moment. One person. One act of open surrender to what's truly possible.
Susan Boyle: The power to change a face. The power to melt a heart. The power to cover the earth with belief. From one small village.
Susan Boyle: The immense, incalculable power of inner vision, humility, persistence, and play.
Susan Boyle: Our living lesson that when life provides a stage, sing your heart out, and prepare to be blessed!
Two reminders of hope: Captain Sully lands a plane, and Susan Boyle takes off with a career - equally improbably, and both truly great.
Susan Boyle: A walking paradox, as are we all, so her example gives us hope.
Who knew that Socratic Simon Cowell would be the midwife of all this?