Stumbling Through My Inbox

Every now and then I have an email exchange, or swap private messages though one of the social media sites in which I'm involved, that is worth sharing.

Recently I published a post entitled Let's Get A Few Things Straight and followed it up with Sending People Screaming Into The Night Can Be Fun... Ho Ho.

Hunter S. Thompson was a prolific letter writer, as I was at one time, and his archive topped some 20,000 pieces of correspondence. The Good Doctor published two books made up of his letters, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman and Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist.

No collection of my correspondence would be complete without this exchange...

It began when I received this message in my StumbleUpon Inbox:

Thank you for the kind review. And this new friendship.
Happy Trails. :-)
Maggie

Thanks for the good words, Maggie. It's the human connection that makes social media worthwhile for me so I look forward to getting acquainted...because friendship doesn't come from clicking a button, eh.

This is the reason I stay on SU. People like you. I look forward to getting to know you.

Regarding people like me being a reason for you to stay on SU, I'd appreciate if you have a look at this blog post.

A stumble would help, if you're so inclined, but I'm more interested in your feedback on a human level.

Done. I like you.

You like me, Maggie? Well, what can I say, no accounting for taste. Ho Ho. If you have any feedback, given that we've just become acquainted, I'd certainly be interested to see whatever your take away might be, eh.

Thanks, of course, for the stumble.

---{-}->

When I saw that Maggie had landed on my SU page yesterday, about 2 1/2 weeks after our initial exchange, I returned the favor and visited her.

Visiting friends further fosters a connection, I think, and when a stumbler hits my page, showing interest in what I'm stumbling, I like to stop by to see if there's something they've thumbed that I might want to pick up.

It wasn't a stumble that drew my attention when I visited Maggie, though, but the fact that she'd removed me from her friend list. It was at that point we exchanged these messages:

Surely there's a note coming my way regarding your removal of me from your friend list. You're drafting it as I type, Maggie, I know. I'll be interested to find why you bailed after such an auspicious start. Ho Ho

Kilroy, my friend,

You mustn't take it personally.
I just can't always comply with your solicitations.
Sometimes it feels a little impersonal, though I love your style.
I am happy to reconcile with you, as long as I can be honest.

ho ho

Yes siree, Maggie, my faith in you paid off.

You know me well enough to understand, I'd say, that I believe it's relationships which win the day and without a human connection there's no use or value in spending time doing social media.

I do take it personally, though, when those people who call you friend diminish the value of that word by cowardly actions which are all too common in this sphere. But not you, Maggie, no, you delivered the goods, albeit a bit late, eh.

There's no difficulty in finding a Send Message prompt, to be sure, not far from that link which says remove and all too many lack the common courtesy, if not the intestinal fortitude, to simply click it to say adios or fuck you.

But you are not one of them, Maggie, and that's what makes you staying in or fleeing from my circle one and the same.

At some point, though, you did lose your way in understanding the path I choose vs. that which is most common among those who dwell in the stumbletron.

Solicitation is not something which should be taken lightly, I grant you, and it's not something in which I indulge frequently.

Rarely, in the short time I've known you, eh, did you ever see me ask for support of anything I sent your way, either as a Share en Mass, which comes clearly labeled, or a message directed to you? No.

That is true, you see, as my intention in sending communication to "friends" is not, in most cases, to ask for a stumble, or a tumble, but to forge a human connection...because that's what "friends" do. Right.

So, Maggie, what is there to say other than do as you see fit. There's nothing that trumps honesty and it's the easiest path so what problem should anyone have with that?

Cheers