Community Matters - Be a neighbor

My neighbor informed me today that her relative would be coming to live with her because he's been diagnosed with cancer and has anywhere from a few months to a year to live, won't be able to fully care for himself, and has nowhere else to go.

This is the part of the story where you expect me to ask you for money, but you'd be wrong.  I thought about what I would want if i was in that situation, closed off from my ability to get out into my physical world and access my real life community.  Or how difficult it must be on those occasions when you do actually get to meet someone to have to deal with the 'pity response', the side glances at your appearance, and so on.  And what struck me was just how cathartic a tool like twitter would be, at least for me.  Just that sense of being able to communicate my thoughts freely.  Not about my situation per se', that's up to every individual how they handle that, but just life in general.  Experiencing that sense of what others are doing at that very moment, and sharing that with them.

I could be completely wrong about this, it's not like I've gone out and asked people who know about this kind of thing whether or not it's a good idea.  But I'm thinking I'd like to get the guy a laptop, and it's right next door so he can piggyback off my internet connection, and then show him how to use twitter.

Here's the part where you come in.  When I hand him this laptop I want to let him know that people give a shit, and that there's a community out there who want to hear what he has to say.  So I've setup a twitter account. @community4u . And I want you to follow it.  That's it.  Easy peasy.  Hey, he could be a complete asshole.  He could say thanks but no thanks.  He could look at me like I'm nuts.  I have no idea. But he could also be that person who changes your life.

I'd appreciate it if you'd retweet this.  And for those who don't know me and think this is some kind of scam/stunt/otherwise please talk to those people who do know me.

Matt Ridings - @techguerilla

 

{Post Edit} - This may sound a bit odd, but assuming this is something he wants to do another thing I'd like some feedback on is the notion of "passing down" this account to someone else in this situation afterwards? I just kind of like the thought that the words never go away and gain their own story, that the next person carries on.  Then again, I can see where some might find that morbid I suppose.  Thinking out loud here and it's 1am in the morning so perhaps one of you has some clarity you can bring to this while I go get some sleep.

{Post Post Edit} - To me, *this* is the power of social media.  This visceral human response to connect and protect.  I don't know what will become of this little attempt of mine, but I do know that it solidifies my belief that contrary to what mass media portrays the spirit of "humanness" is alive and well.  I can stand on stage and talk ROI all day long, I can make companies successful, but did I really make a *difference*?  I'll selfishly keep cashing my checks, I have no plans on joining the peace corp or sitting around the campfire singing kum-ba-ya.  But I hope from time to time I can slip in a little mitzvah here and there.  Your feedback has completely overwhelmed me.  {ack! I've combined hebrew and southern colloquialisms in the same article, now I've done it all}

 

Posted on Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 by