Twitter is Sacred

Twitter, sacred?  Well, maybe. A recent blog by Stephen Dinan started the ball rolling for me by asking “When something is wildly successful, as Twitter now is, I often ask myself about its higher purpose. In other words, what might be the deeper meaning of Twitter?”

Could a string of 140 characters have a higher meaning?

In his blog, Dinan makes the case that Twitter is propagating new ideas at light speed, helping to create a new form of intimacy and allowing us to connect with our individuality while tracking global concerns.

Let’s break that down. There’s no doubt that ideas propelled at the speed of light are spreading faster than ever before. The concept of intimacy and “friendship” is also changing fast. By looking at my Blackberry I can learn what my friends thought of exploding stereotypes in Julie and Julia or exploding bodies in District 9. One friend is getting metal rods in his foot after a 80 mph racing kart crash. Ok, too much information. Point is, this kind of intimacy  doesn’t involve face to face, more like face to screen. You can have involved relationships with people without ever meeting them.

Decline of civilization, ya think?  Could be. But I think it’s more about people craving connection and being inventive about finding it where they can. I can’t find the town square of Los Angeles on my GPS; neither can anybody else. So we have to invent a town square.  Mine turns out to be on a screen.  Is that a strange place to find “what it’s all about?”

“I am glad I wasn’t there. I hate crowds. In a field? No in-door plumbing? My sister will tell you that camping, to me, has always meant a Holiday Inn. Music? I’m tone deaf.”
-Mathew Tombers

Tombers wrote that in a blog about Woodstock, the cultural touchstone that happened forty years ago this month.  Like Tombers, I too would have stayed away, but only because I can’t deal with using a porta-potty while on acid.  The iconic moment of Woodstock has come around again in a surprising way – this time instead of mud and music we have pixels and social progress.

As people seek connection on the Internet they are also trying to do work that matters. The two go together because the exchange of ideas is accelerating while we remain connected with hundreds if not thousands of people.  Businesses are going green. People are looking at micro-financing to help the world’s poor. The shows I’m pitching in my company are about healing or consciousness or science and spirit.  Ideas travel fast when they’re wired and there’s the sense that we’re all thinking the same thing: How can we do good?

As Lynne Twist writes in The Soul of Money, “The communications explosion has awakened our natural relatedness to one another and the awareness of the fact that we’re interconnected.  It has also facilitated a truly global conversation on important issues that affect us all.”

A global conversation on Twitter?  That’s technology helping us put a lot of consciousness into 140 characters.

Money and Power and Swimming with Sharks

Written by Lee Schneider, founder of DocuCinema

This month I’m conducting an experiment in not striving. I’m nine days in. It’s going pretty badly. Pushing, grasping, wanting and hoping are kind of like getting up in the morning: I strive, therefore I am. Some sharks are like that – they can’t stop swimming because then they stop breathing. Let me try taking a breath while staying motionless in the water. How’s that feel? Terrible, can I start striving now?

Being meditative and reflective, accepting where you are and preparing to receive abundance are all really easy things to do. You can start by sitting cross-legged on a soft surface and staring into the sun until your eyeballs explode. No, that’s not what’s supposed to happen. But that’s what it feels like for me. I’ve never been good at meditative postures. I like running – did a 10K last weekend. After a couple miles I reach a humming-along-with-the-universe state that feels about right. Afterward I find my decision making clearer, I treat other people better and go easier on myself. I get just as much stuff done but with less effort. Is that what not striving is like? That might be worth striving for.

One path to not striving might be found in one’s relationship to power. As our friend Lotta said in her recent newsletter, “Power comes to us when we stop reaching for it. It’s actually always with us, but it’s our striving that gets in the way.” Striving doesn’t give us power. It can, in fact, take it away. The Soul of Money, by Lynne Twist, works this idea through, bringing in some thoughts on money.

“Each of us experiences a lifelong tug-of-war between our money interests and the calling of our soul. When we’re in the domain of soul, we act with integrity. We are thoughtful and generous, allowing, courageous, and committed. We recognize the value of love and friendship. We admire a small thing well done.”

Things change, she writes, when we enter the domain of money, and then, “It is as if we are suddenly transported to a different playing field where all the rules have changed. In the grip of money, those wonderful qualities of soul seem to be less available. We become smaller. We scramble or race to ‘get what’s ours.’ We often grow selfish, greedy, petty, fearful, or controlling, or sometimes confused, conflicted or guilty.”

Ok, let’s get real. The world is pretty greedy, petty, fearful and confused already, right? Does this mean I have to quit show business and work in a granola factory?

There will always be friends (I’m talking to you, East Coast) who will say “Who cares whether you cash your paycheck with integrity? Take the money and run.” Well, I’m thinking there’s more. I’m thinking Lance Armstrong, who came out of retirement to ride the Tour de France after winning seven times. He has a slim chance of winning eight times but he showed up anyway. “I feel good, I feel strong,” he said, as quoted by the AP. Showing up, feeling good, feeling strong, accepting where he is. There’s something to that.

What if you can do a job that fires you up, and therefore you can do it better, get paid more for it and stop and breathe at the same time? I can give that a go without striving for another 22 days at least.