Blessing Social Media is Good 4 U

When life seems to be a relentless struggle for survival, it’s so good to have someone in your corner. In this day and age when face-to-face relationships are hard to manage, social media has arrived on the scene to help fill in the gap. Even when we are warned about the dangers of social media as it gets blamed for the deterioration of human interaction, the truth is, it has also saved the lives of many.

For those who need to find someone in their corner with whom they can resonate with, regardless of your social status in the real world, you can find someone empathetic to your situation, cause, or plight.

In this way, social media plays an important part in the social matrix of your life. When you desperately need someone on your side, who can see things from your perspective, can feel what you’re feeling or has walked a mile in your shoes, social media can give you access to the people you need for support, when it would be difficult to do so in the real world.

I know when I have been at my lowest, and it seemed like there was no one there, I was desolate, alone, and felt as though there was no hope, or reason to go on, social media bridged the gap and helped me get through the toughest of times.

People, although virtual, were there to care, understand, love, and support me, when the rest of my life in the real world was crumbling all around me.

With all the negative press that social media gets (much of it warranted), there is another side to it as well. This virtual instant access to others can help build up and support the human condition as well.

Certainly, as with anything with huge positive potential, it can be abused and used with negative intent, but on the other side it can have incredible potential for making the world a better place.

Social media is a powerful medium which can either impact the world for good or for evil, and it appears that in order to keep its effectiveness, it must remain neutral. It’s up to you to decide how you will wield the awesome power of this electronic networking tool.

Social media is a microcosm of the totality of life on our planet. All types of people, philosophies, personality types, and beliefs are represented, and for the most part are able, and encouraged, to share their thoughts and feelings freely.

You may not always agree (and there is no reason why you should be required to) and you always have a choice in how you will represent yourself via social media. You can choose to fight, counter-attack, bless, or love. It’s up to you.

It may serve you well to think about how you are showing up in social media.
Are you representing yourself as the person you would like to be remembered as?

I know when Aaron was killed in Afghanistan, his social media was a worldwide representation of who he was, and it still survives him, even today.

I have many friends who have since passed away and their social media accounts give us all something to look back on to remember, honor, laugh, and reflect on the impact they have had on our lives when they were here.

Someday, after I am long gone, the virtual footprints of my social media interactions may be all that remains.

Just remember, your social media might represent the kind of person you are (or were) when you were here, on your life’s journey.

How would you like to be remembered in your social media?

Time and Memorial

Time goes on, and you love and you experience loss. It’s all a part of the grand design of this life’s experience. We attach ourselves to people who we admire or love. People who have greatly impacted our lives in ways they could never know or imagine.

These are the distant heroes of our lives. They are religious icons, celebrities, musicians, performance artists, artists, actors, business and wealth leaders, and a host of people who may be beyond arm’s length, yet they inspire us to do better, achieve more or build a fire inside us to offer something more to the world that has blessed us with this gift of life.

Then, when you least expect it, the person who has been such an inspiration to you, ends their physical journey on the very earth you may have shared with them. And you experience a sense of loss.

You may experience a great sense of loss and be affected in the most incredible way, as if you experienced the grief of the loss of a close friend or loved one, even though you may have never met this person face to face, or did not have a two-way long-term relationship. Still, you feel the pain of separation and realize that any hope of sharing an experience or creating something in the future with that person could never be.

Then, as you get older, you see your relatives and friends start to leave this physical plane, and you grieve their loss.

Then, on days, like today, we honor those who have lost their lives in military service. As honorable as this is, to volunteer for military service so that the rest of us can stay at home and enjoy the fruits of our American freedoms, is commendable, to say the least.

A few years ago, I had a son who volunteered for such a command in military service. I watched him take his vow of service, and I was as proud as a father could be. Even though he pledged to give his life in service if necessary, both he and I were certain that the odds were in his favor.

How could we have known that on the first 4th of July following his enlistment, he would be fatally wounded in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan?

We, his mother and I, talked to him on the phone the evening of July 3rd, and he was so alive… He called many friends and relatives that evening. Only a few hours later, there was the ominous knock on our door by a pair of full-dressed military officials delivering the news.

No parent should have to bury their own son or daughter, ever. In that moment, Aaron’s mother and I joined the families that lost a family while in military service as well as parents who would have to lay one of their children to rest.

It is the worst possible pain, yet even in the sacrifice of young PFC Aaron Fairbairn, he leaves behind a legacy that immortalizes his life, sacrifice and service among the many heroes who had fallen before him and those who will fall henceforth.

In our memories of all who are remembered for their deeds on earth, we honor them, celebrate their life and preserve their memory, extending the impact on our lives and the lives of others when we remember them. In this way we invite them to live in us and through us even though their days were numbered.

Sometimes, people you have loved so dearly, more dearly than you could ever dare to admit, suddenly leave, and any sense of loss that you might have may not be deemed socially acceptable. This is referred to as disenfranchised grief, and you are certainly entitled to your grief, though it may be a process of solitude, making your own way, in private, without the emotional support of family and friends.

But that’s okay. We all do the best we can with what we have.

Love, live and honor those who are no longer with us.

Celebrate their lives and add love, value, and longevity to their lives by extending in in your own.