Friday, September 17, 2010

Some Things You Save...

At one point this summer, I found myself staring out over a lake at sunset.

I had an impromptu sushi picnic in a random park.

I walked my way down Newbury Street to the Boston Common, and two willow trees framed the skyline perfectly.

Each time, I found myself reaching for my phone to take a picture and post it on twitter. Each of these times I also had the sense to stop myself, thinking "some things I need to save for me."

Oh, Twitter, you're so addictive. It's so tempting to publicize every occasion in which I do something cool. Because, people will think I'm cool, right? Don't get me wrong—I'm not anti-twitter. I initially signed up to keep fans in distant cities engaged and share new music. I continue to use it because it allows me to feel connected to old friends, and even helps me find new friends. And, well, sometimes I find myself hilarious and want the world to know.

In fact, I just tweeted. (Cough. Excuse me.)





I'm a writer and performer, so I love sharing my thoughts and feelings. I do it on a regular basis, and value the vulnerability that comes with singing my songs for an audience, or writing them and immediately posting them to this blog. There are lots of folks out there who think there's far too much information (and far too much useless information) taking up prime real estate in our brains. I'm undecided on that one.

What I'm trying to keep in check is my motivation for sharing parts of my life, or even my motivation for the activities I post about. (I've caught myself pushing myself to do something adventurous because it would be an "awesome tweet." That historically does not lead to my best decision-making.)

Mainly, though, I'm just going to try and remember that some moments need to belong only to me—partly because I just think they should, and partly because there are some moments that can't be descibed or shared. And certainly can't be communicated in 140 characters or less or with a crappy picture from my cell phone.

I will continue to write and share songs that mean something to me, though. I'm definitely going to keep making odd videos. Ooh. And blog and tweet whatever goofy thoughts I have. No question. It's just that I had a great lunch adventure in Boston today... and I'm not telling you where. I'm saving that one. :)

2 comments:

Texhawk said...

I must admit there have been times when I had an "almost" overpowering urge to tweet on how hilarious you are, but so far I have resisted creating a Twitter account.

Texhawk said...

I knew you were super human, but I didn't realize you were also a super hero!