Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Un "Unanticipated" Blessing of Social Media

Everywhere I go – Sri Lanka...Jordan...Washington, D.C. – I find people with a similar story. When thousands of people discover that their story is also someone else's story, they have the chance to write a new story together.”                                             - Eboo Patel

One of the upsides of Facebook may be this very truth as enunciated by Eboo Patel. You come to see yourself and others in each other's journey/story. It is amazing how many times my response to something I see posted on Facebook is, “Wow! Me too!” It is a small world.

Now, before you say it, let me admit that what I read on Facebook is posted by those whom I have chosen to designate as my “friends.” Therefore, we are bound to have things in common. Yet, wherever these various “friends” are on my friend continuum – lifelong friend through significant aquaintance to one of many I know through the United Church of Canada, I am still impressed by the points at which our stories significantly intersect.

But then there is this one thing that impresses me even more: These various “friends” share posts about others they know and many they do not know – all unknown to me – but there is still unexpected intersections in “our” stories. I am moved by the stories of strangers at a very deep place in my being. We are curiously connected!

Maybe this is an unanticipated “blessing” of social media; it will teach us how we are all truly sisters and brothers. It may help us to understand that despite the various physical, cultural, linguistic, and social differences that span our world, my heart and your heart and her heart and his heart all beat the same, feel the same, touch the same, bleed the same, make us uniquely one. No matter where we live on this planet, at the very core of our being, we are one. Thanks be!

P.S. If you have not heard of Eboo Patel before, Google him. Amazing person!

No comments:

Post a Comment