With time, I have the opportunity to reinvigorate my professional learning network of friends, colleagues, mentors, and teachers from all walks of life and multiple places. My Twitter feed, Facebook friends, and real time associations, friends, and companions make up a rich resource of experiences, outlooks, and wisdom. I want to develop this group more, and think deeply about their role in my life and their support for what I can do.
For example, I had a quandry about a political matter recently. I wasn't quite sure what to think about a particular event. So I posed a few questions on social media and received some amazing, inspiring responses--responses that helped me to see the situation with greater clarity as well as help me formulate new questions about the matter. I was grateful for the responses from people I've known over time, and people who have had long, dedicated careers in multiple spheres. What a rich resource.
Then, just a few days ago, Henry Turner reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to receive his social justice newsletter. I don't know a lot about Henry, but I do know that I've been inspired by his posts over time on social media. I said, yes, and received the first related links already--I'm excited to develop my social justice awareness and efforts via Henry's perspective. This will be positive.
As I develop this network of friends, teachers, public figures, and family, my overall aim is to broaden my perspective about good living in ways that help me live a good life and help others live good lives too. I want to be a contributor who knows when and what to give, and when to step back to listen, observe, and learn more. My overarching aim in this endeavor is simply to live and work amongst a dedicated group of loving, positive people who, like me, want to continually work for a good world--a place where people have the opportunity to live good lives.
I believe that the greatest challenge for me and for many right now is the challenge to move beyond the labels, definitions, and preconceived ideas we have about individuals, groups, initiatives and specific laws and policies. Instead I believe we have to work hard to rid ourselves of binary, either-or, right-wrong mindsets, and replace that with continuum think recognizing that no one is all good or all bad, all knowing or not knowing, a contributor or a taker, right or wrong. Instead we all fall on the continuum somewhere between the extremes and to live and foster good lives means finding the right balance amongst the many continuums that exist for us.
For example, we all know people who have greatly erred in life--they've made incredible mistakes, shown poor judgement, and created great havoc. Yet, we also know that these same people have also contributed to good living in significant ways too. Bill Cosby is a public, well known example of this. As a child, I loved the Cosby show--it changed my perspectives of life in many ways. The show also brought me good laughs and entertainment. Then when Cosby was convicted of abusive acts, I was saddened to hear that. Here was a man that so many of us looked up to and loved from afar as he entertained us, made us laugh, and introduced us to new worlds convicted of abuse of others.
In ourselves, though hopefully not as extreme as the Cosby continuum, we have our good and bad traits, experiences, contribution too. It is not as simple as he's a good person and she's a bad person--we're all a mix of multiple traits, experiences, actions, and impact.
The goal is to continually move to betterment with a mix of good traits, actions, and outlook past and present, and to get there it is imperative that we work with one another and that we create rich networks of inspiring, knowledgeable, honest, loving, and impactful people online and in real time to work with, learn from, exchange ideas, and potentially mentor too.
Over time, I've selected every person I follow on Facebook and Twitter. There are a lot of people there, and everyone I chose at one time or another for a specific reason. There are so many follows on Twitter that I can't recall the reasons why I chose each person, but unless they've posted rude or lude posts, I've kept my follows who have been there now for about ten years. I have learned so much from them. In the recent years I have not added too many new people simply beacause the follow-list was getting so large, but now at this juncture, I will begin adding new people. I think of my Facebook group as a group of closely tied friends and family members--people who I have known in mostly deep ways in one aspect of my life or another. On Twitter there's a greater variety including people I've known for a long time as well as many people who have influenced my thinking in multiple ways including via the arts, music, theater, education circles, leadership threads, and even spiritual mentors and seekers. In the days ahead, I'll likely branch out a bit more on Youtube and potentially get more active on Medium and Instagram--I may even explore TikTok--we'll see.
In real time, I'll use that last few months of the pandemic to focus on those relationships that are closest to me--the people in my pod which includes close family members. I'll also reach out to some that I walk with outdoors or touch base with via telephone and video. Later, after the pandemic, I'll rethink the connections beyond these close people--I'll likely connect with groups at the library, gym, and community events and possibly new work if time allows.
In many ways today, we essentially create wisdom teams--teams of people in real time and online that inspire us, exchange ideas, and help us be happy, connected, good people. This is a valuable opportunity in life--one I'm thinking about with greater depth now that I have the time to do it. Onward.