Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

October 22, 2008

Social Anchors that Link Us Together

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:17 pm

Social Media Can Be Words

I've been thinking . . .

about connections. Earlier this year I had a conversation, tossing questions and answers with a person I just met.

Cheryl asked, “What are you proud of?”

Plenty of events rose before me, and faded gracefully back again. None of them what I might take pride in. This one owing to my child’s work. That one owing to a team’s participation. The other being a serendipitious aligning of the stars.

Proud feels like approving. Even when I feel proud just know someone, word often don’t say . . . I don’t want raising folks up to seem like putting them lower.

I didn’t know . . .

I replied, “I have an unusual relationship the word proud. I don’t see things quite that way.” I explained as best I could.

She said, “I like the way you think about that.”

Funny how words like that, words that scare ya in some way can turn out to become an important– an anchor — something that holds and ties you to a person and a moment in time.

It was an ordinary day — a day without a parade or ceremony. Someone who knew me wrote the proud word in the comment box. He put it there where people could see it. It was a simple statement.

“Fiercely proud.”

We were two Internet people who’d never been in the same room. He had trouble with the proud word too. He said, “It sounds weird to say.”

Can I tell you what that meant?

It was a link that worked in both directions.

I was fiercely proud of him too.

Those words were a social anchor — a link, a connection, a relationship on the Internet — only this one was between humans not sites. They placed us and a moment in time forever together on the same thought, like the star rising in the photo below.

star rising


Links hold us together. Some can last forever or as long as a star.

Do you have a social anchor — words that reflect a human relationship link you found on the Internet? Would you tell me the story?

If you leave your story, we’ll be linked in yet another way.

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Filed under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog |




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9 Comments to “Social Anchors that Link Us Together”

  1. October 22nd, 2008 at 11:31 pm
    Giovanna Garcia said

    Liz

    That is so true. Most people think about link and online they think of sites. But you have really showed us that it is all about people link each other. Faces behind the keyboards.

    Giovanna Garcia

  2. October 23rd, 2008 at 4:32 am
    Donna said

    Last year on a photographic site, I met a photojournalist from India when we both submitted our photos to a site for sale. He left positive comments on my shots and we came to communicate via email. He was absent often while shooting somewhere in India, but then suddenly another comment would appear on my latest shot. “great image” this spurred me on to try harder. now I filter my latest submissions through him to critique first and I have learned so much from him and am humbled when he asks me what I think of some of his very powerful images. He advised me on what camera to buy and we have become online supportive friends Raj and I. Stars crossing each others paths.

  3. October 23rd, 2008 at 7:42 am
    Richard Reeve said

    I tend to be cautious of the “proud” center in myself as it tends to draw me into inflation…which is followed by taking a piece of reality on the teeth. Recently I was a part of a complex unfolding in these parts that led to the opening of a new arts center. It’s exactly where I find myself going for the “proud of” that I learn where I need to let go…

  4. October 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 am
    Cheryl Smith said

    Then, as now, I’m grateful for your insights and for your ability to strengthen the conversation and carry ideas further than any of us anticipate. Perhaps most of all, I love the fact that you are comfortable in your own skin and that I can hear that in your words here, as well as over the phone.

    I look forward to seeing that self assurance on your face, in person, perhaps at SobCon09!

  5. October 25th, 2008 at 6:47 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Giovanna,
    I remember the first time we talked on the phone. Your stories about what you’re doing are powerful. I think that you’re unforgettable. :)

  6. October 25th, 2008 at 6:50 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hello Donna,
    That’s it! Somehow we find friends and mentors in the same people. One friend and I mentor each other — her strengths are in one place mine are in another. Without the Internet we’d never have met . . . now we’re linked around a single word that in some ways changed my life.

    Thank you for your story.

  7. October 25th, 2008 at 6:52 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Richard,
    I hope to meet you. I hear so much in what you write in these comments. It’s wise man who knows which personal potholes to avoid. Sounds like you’ve got that one covered.

  8. October 25th, 2008 at 6:54 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Cheryl,
    See how you inspire. :)

  9. October 30th, 2008 at 10:48 am
    Jeremy Wright said

    And I’m still proud, humbled and honoured. Luv Liz, always will :)

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