They are.
Really cool.
I was doing my evening surfing, reading email, catching up on Facebook & Twitter when I had this thought: "How cool is it that human beings can communicate in such a detailed way?"
The next thought was even better. Because it was one of those "aha" moments when something you know you've known for a long time suddenly seems different and new (which totally sounds like a Barry Manilow song).
"Reading and writing are incredibly awesome things."
It's just crazy that one person can write something and someone else, who can't see them, can't hear them and may have never even met them, can read it. And then be moved to laughter. Or tears. Or anger. Or simply given something to think about.
But wait. It gets better. It can end there or it can stay alive.
When it ends there, the reader reads, thinks, cries, laughs and moves on. A one way street.
When it stays alive it produces the next level of awesomeness. When the reader has the means to turn the tables and respond to the original author, we have a Written Conversation. And it can still be taking place between two people who don't even know each other.
People decry the tentacle-like arms of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. But those sites allow us the freedom of having conversations in a way we never have before. For example, my mother, who has 7 kids, a slew of grand kids and several great-grand kids, uses social media to actively participate in conversations with people like my cousin's college-age son. A few years ago it would have taken a lot of serendipity for that to happen.
So here's to words. Cheers.
PS - I have not been drinking.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
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My cousin's college-age son. Hmmm... is that a reference to someone?
ReplyDeleteAlthough "my cousin's college-age, night owl, part vampire, part ninja son" gives better clues, it seemed a little overboard, so I toned it down.
ReplyDeletelol. I guess it's for the better and obviously I am in favor of reading and writing. My major would be nothing without it... Well it would more be like the theater major if there weren't reading and writing. Imagine if we were still on the oral story system. Look at Fahrenheit 451 they had to go back to the oral system because reading and writing were nixed.
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