Shannon and I have a good Mate Amitai Givertz, who has a lovely Wife Mel, and two beautiful daughters that happen to live just up the road from us in Palm Beach Gardens. That’s about ten miles away north of West Palm Beach where we live. Who knows, perhaps by this fall when we hope to buy a home again we might become even more neighborly.
We met Ami through our first business blog EXCELER8ion and he had the good sense to suggest that we meet in person, rather than just online. Meeting for dinner and on other occasions have made us closer. Naturally.
We read each other’s blogs, tweets (on Twitter) and we even get together once in a while. Ami sent me an email today that I want to be able to remember years from now. And yes Mate, it’s time to get together for a coffee, or a brew or whatever – we miss you. Cheers!
Here’s Ami’s message
“I’ve been thinking about you and Shannon,
Thinking about you a lot.
Twitter has synthesized our being in touch,
But being in touch, we are not!I have sampled Shannon’s casseroles,
I have been with you there at the store,
But now that Twitter is broken,
I see I’ve become quite a bore.That scrumptious pile of veggies,
The illusion now is plain
Standing with you in the checkout,
How could I have felt your pain?The miles and miles that divide us,
In truth it is only a few,
So let me know when you’re ready, Jules,
And I’ll buy you and Shannon a brew.I know, I know, its not convention,
For me to connect with you like this,
But every time I think of tweeting you, mate,
I feel like I’m taking the piss.”
-Amitai Givertz
6 comments ↓
Actually, Jules, my concern piqued when Shannon complained one morning that she was stiff and tired. Her tweet said that she had slept sandwiched between the children and the dogs.
I couldn’t help but wonder where you spent the night. There was no mention of it. And therein lies part of the problem with Twitter, I think.
a) With only 149 characters to describe critical detail, what’s left to the imagination? Everything.
b) The resulting cognitive biases that Twitter induces leads to repeated doses of self-deception. More…
c) Twittering [as in the "what am I doing minutia"] promotes an unhealthy form of self-validation in the tweetee. More…
d) At the same time it acts like a kind of digital opiate that stupifies us to the point of becoming overly dependent on the twittor for another 149 character fix.
e) Twitter will, no doubt, eventually render us all completely stupid, incapable of poetry.
On the other hand I can’t deny that following the daily blossoming of yours and Shannon’s love story isn’t delightful. It is, like poetry.
Maybe when you two have a serious cross communication — as even the most “connected” couples do — you’ll both tweet about it and disprove points a), b), c), d) and e).
Of course, none of this answers the question: Where did you sleep that night?
See you in Publix. Kinda sorta…
Well, yes. But for me the minutiae are what makes Twitter work at 13,000 miles. The Tyranny of Distance – a classic book on Australia – is reduced by Twitter even if it is superficial. One of the downsides is that Perth is exactly 12 hours ahead of FL so there is a small opportunity for real time interaction. Plurk’s addition of the timeline makes this offset more obvious but less confusing.
I picked up on this exchange because I read a plurk by Julian about it and clicked the link. So now the exchange on Julian’s website changes as a result of Plurk. As someone trying to experience community on the web this is all good stuff. When I had lunch with John Sumser he pointed out that he physically lived in his flat in Petaluma but he really lived ‘out there’ on the Net….I laughed in recognition. It isn’t the same, but it is possible to create significant parts of relationship and community in cyberspace. I interact with people who are important to me I wouldn’t even know otherwise – so in some ways it makes things better socially. I don’t pretend to know where the edges are and how they fit together with the real world – just some of the hotspots.
I find the Twitter delicious
In its tiny and scrumptious bites.
140 characters are a challenge
That forces my thinking to heights.
Might a thesis be more appropriate?
I have a blog and the Internet for that.
On Twitter I am forced to negotiate
My thoughts without making them fat.
I find the minutiae of others
Often leads my mind far and wide.
It spurs the sprite of imagination
To act as an illusory guide.
No, I fear not the loss of my poetry
I welcome the tempest of toss'd,
Delighting in the sphere of its reach
Twitter has me no matter the cost.
I like that one Maureen!
Ah, Maureen, forever the Poet,
For wit I must give you the nod,
But when it comes to a-twitterin', dear
I find your apology quite odd.
While I would never question your reasons,
For The Road Less Traveled is trod,
When it comes to deciding my path to new heights,
I think I'll keep on following God.
I see your referring to "Thesis"
Maureen, are having a dig?
I know you think me precocious, my dear,
But quite frankly, I don't give a fig.
To the expanse of your thinking is power'd
By others' minuscule tweets,
Suggests you may have that condition, I fear
Where your thoughts are never complete.
In conclusion I am making this stanza,
A model of future refrain,
'Cause while your out there a-twitterin,' girl,
I'll be #sourcing some #names.
[Pls delete the previous! I hit go too soon! See you for coffee
]
Ha Ha you strike where it hurts most
Into my belly of fear
To think that you'd move on beyond me
Sends shivers you know, my dear.
Alas I must give up something
As you know I downplay the cost.
But to not listen and learn from the Twitter
Would leave me feeling most lost.
Perhaps it's myopic obsession
Maybe a filling of need
But for what Twitter delivers
I'll continue to count it one of my deeds.
I unnerstan' your comic denial
That Twitter is mostly for dopes
But I ask you now to consider
How else could I bring you to ropes?
For you see, without the fair medium
To discuss, insult and trash-talk
How now would be we be so entangled
In short stanzas that allow us to mock?
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