It’s yet another *inspired* Saturday morning for me. What an incredible second week with MobileMatters the team is gelling and we are all amped about how we can use our unique talents to create change in the world through social technologies. And we’re not talking just “Text to Donate” which is super exciting in and of itself (did you know we can set up a text campaign for a 501C3 where $5 or $10 gets charged to a supporters phone bill? No pay pal, no check, no wait, just 100% immediate funding for your cause-WHOA!) but really harnessing these technologies to shake things up and make a real impact.
It was both personally and professionally pivotal for me. As I continue to learn about the mobile world and explore the myriad of small businesses, arts and non profits that we will be helping, my mind races with creative and innovative ways to help them change the world. I had an incredible (and pricey) breakfast with Brad Spies of SxSW about multiple things, not the least of which was possibly working with Sweet Relief as part of the incredibly rad Beacon Lounge project.
Then I had a killer night watching some amazing CMJ bands-PLEASE check out the exceedingly melodic and quirky FAMILY OF THE YEAR if they come to your town-you wont be sorry (or bored). Thanks to Matt for sharing the radness with me.
But the most pivotal and incredible moment of the week came when I got to meet someone who literally changed and quite possibly saved my life. Many years ago in one of those “dark seasons” (which is to say a really awful, depressing, Morrissey filled summer) a friend who I had some deep conversations with over coffee and tear stained doodles gave me a book. This book was pretty simple, it was just a guy hanging out, going through stuff and asking questions that had answers he didn’t like so he kept asking and then eventually created his own answers.
The hook is-the questions and answers were about God. And the guy seemed to have read the script someone wrote that constantly plays out in my mind because his words were echoing my life. And at the end of BLUE LIKE JAZZ I decided to follow Christ. The sequel to that book for me was The Message Bible and part duex of that story was me finding Epic Church and Robb & Shaula Overholt who pulled me from darkness, recognized my need to help and heal people (and maybe the world in some small way) and showed me how I could do that through Christ and ministry.
So this guy Donald Miller, (who’s comfy chair i helped fund because I bought a zillion books and gave them to everyone I knew whether they were happy or sad, pagan or christian, willing or un) spoke here in New York this week. In a church that he aptly likened to Hogwarts and i was all a flutter as if I was meeting one of the New Kids on the Block and it was 1989.
Beyond just sheer appreciation and wonderment at someone who had such a life-altering impact on your life, I wanted to meet Don because of the work he is doing for fatherless boys through his Mentoring Project. I have worked with “at risk” youth (sidebar: aren’t we all “at risk” when we’re young and vulnerable and wily???)….anyway one of the things we are doing at Mobile Matters is identifying organizations and small businesses where we can use mobile technologies and social media to have a big impact both programmatic and in raising funds and support. So I was excited to learn more about his work and chat with him about what we might be able to do to unite fatherless sons with someone who can change their lives—-much in the same way Don changed mine.
O.K. enough bubbles and lollipops about how awesome Don Miller is because truth be told the appetizer on the main course was as AMAZING and inspirational as Don was. Susan Isaacs took the pulpit (at Hogwarts) and reached out and grabbed the audience by the (fill in whatever you’d like here; short and curlies-balls-etc etc). She not only questioned the (British speaking) guy in the sky but she got downright angry at him. She had done everything “right” in terms of church (and chastity) and being a “good” person and yet still faced strife and struggle and failure. She was pissed off. And she said so…and a whole lot more while reading from her book Angry Conversations with God. I picked up a copy and can’t wait to see more about her journey.
Susan was funny and inspiring and real and totally entertaining, she reminded me of myself a few year back. Just kidding; she did remind me of how much I loved telling stories and doing comedy and making people laugh (intentionally not in the unintentional way they normally do). So now I have even more impetus to get back in the creative realm now that I’m here in the big apple. So thank you Susan for that!!!
Maybe if I start doing comedy and writing more, my blogs could be a bit shorter and you could go back to doing something more uplifting like…………….DONATING TO THE MENTORING PROJECT or watching Susan Isaacs wax poetic and hilarious on boys and Hollywood and God:
@LuckyRenee 