In the midst of a 5-hour bike ride, I found a $20 bill on the road. What started as a trivial moment soon grew into a powerful movement.
My first inclination, as you might imagine, was to smile, pocket it and roll on. But, my mind has been deeply engrossed in social media — and it soon occurred to me that we might have something here. I decided to Tweet it up (left) because when I put something to our followers, magic happens.
Sure enough, it did again. People started @replying their ideas on what to do with the $20:
“Ride by a gas station and give it to someone who looks like they need help filling up their tank.” ~@rscottcarter
“Buy yourself and 3 people ice cream!” ~@sunkistdaisy
“You give enough to others. If you don’t see a homeless person between there and the ice cream store blow it on yourself.” ~@Canadiam
I love our followers on Twitter. I truly do. I believe there is no finer group of people anywhere in social media. I coudn’t very well choose just one of their ideas, so I decided to choose them all! (see Tweet, below).
The next morning, one of my dearest friends and ESHM Executive Vice President Nolan Lowry and I went to the bank — on his birthday! — withdrew some money, grabbed an iPhone, hopped on our bikes and … proceeded to spread the looove!
Here is a video journal of our day. And, what a day it was! We “paid it forward” to total strangers. What I love about this concept is that you never know where that kindness will spread or the impact it can have. It’s quite like Twitter: you never know who your Tweets will touch — or how they will echo across humanity.
In life, the choices we make — and more often than not, don’t make — have a profound effect on the quality of our lives. We can either cavalierly disregard the sweet moments we experience. Or we can seize them — and turn them into something good. Or, great.
The breathtaking tools of social media — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Ning, Wordpress — enable us to takemoments and transform them into movements.
That is what happened here. And, it was beautiful to behold.
Thank you, @ericharr followers.
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