I love all the little conversations I inadvertently have in Twitter - many of them via Facebook. They engage me and open my eyes to the world and help me realise that not everyone sees things as I do - either because they actually have a very different perspective or because a little bit of information or context is missing. Here is one example.
I recently re-tweeted a quote from Henry David Thoreau "David Gurteen RT @ThoreauPage: I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad."
To which I had a reply in Facebook (my Tweets automatically update my Facebook status) from Stuart Keeble an old friend of mine from my Lotus Development days: "I don't like this - but FB doesn't give me a simple button to press so I have to comment. Where's the challenge to humanity to leave a better legacy to our children?? Or do we suddenly lose interest in green ideals, in a sense of community and appreciation of diversity??!! "
This was my reply: " Stuart, how familiar are you with the works of Thoreau - if you are - read the quote again and think about what he really means and you may see it differently. If you are not familiar with him and you have the inclination, read Walden Pond and I think you will see it in a new light :-) And see http://www.walden.org or http://www.ti.org. Thoreau was THE original environmentalist :-)"
Stuart learnt a little about Thoreau here but more often or not it is the other way around and I get to do the bulk of the learning :-)
