As a young man, teens into early adulthood, one tends to shy away from encouraging your friends with real and simple words of encouragement. Instead, one says something like, “Sup man.” “Nothin’, sup wit’ you?” “Nutin, man. ya know, stuff just happenin’” “Cool. Cool.” And if this really intense conversation gets any deeper, it typically has to do with the Celtics or the hottie who just walked into that store.
I don’t remember the first time I started saying things like “Thank you for being a great example in my life” or “I have to tell you that that act of service was nothing short of amazing” to other people face to face, but I do know that each time I do it, it gets less cheesy and less uncomfortable. Not saying anything against thank you notes because I like them and I send them, but it takes guts and emotional risk to step outside of your comfort zone and say something absolutely nice and true to someone’s face. I know, it shouldn’t and it seems weird to say it, but far too often we fear the reaction of others so we keep silent and talk about the weather. This is especially true for guys.
Is it true for you?
Sometime in 2005 I took a test to find out what my strengths were. I found that my top 5 were as follows: 1. Ideator, 2. Positivity, 3. Connectedness, 4. Competition, 5. Developer
I noticed as several of my friends took the same test that several of us had one of those in common. Out of the 7 people I know that took the test, 5 of them had connectedness as a strength.
Some qualitites of someone with this strength – “That I gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it; I am part of a larger picture, and I must not harm others because I will harm myself; and I am a bridge builder between people of different cultures.”
Enter the beauty of web 2.0 to people like me.
I’m not a fan of compartmentalizing my life. I like things, whether it’s people in my life or web sites I go to, to all be connected to one another. This makes my mom and google both very happy.
How does this affect me?
I like it when my family and my friends and all the people in my life meet. What makes this interesting is when they don’t get along. I think everyone should get along. Not like each other, just get along.
I like using google and itunes. My friend Clay swears against itunes, and probably rightfully so, but I like when things connect together easily, so I use it. I know, I know Clay, I sacrifice things to use itunes. Google connects a lot of things in my web life, like my Calendar, my way to find where I might be going, my blog reader, my connect with Fellowship Church podcasts, and even my weather, not to mention my documents (I don’t have to pay for Microsoft office again!)
Weather
This is not a fuzzy picture, this is snow on the ground outside of my house this morning.
And that is a robin, signifying the return of spring.
What do you think I should do today? Fly a kite or go snowboarding?
