The Good Side of Social Media
A story of smiles and tears
There are times in life where we are impacted by stories we read in a book, watch on TV or see play out on social media.
In today’s world, most of the stories that we see aren’t very positive and it’s usually something we wish we wouldn’t have seen or read. We avoid news because it’s always stories about the bad.
What I witnessed happen over the timespan of a few weeks recently on X (formerly Twitter) wasn’t that. It’s something you likely won’t hear about on the news, broadcast to the masses or “going viral” online. Although, maybe it should.
On October 9th, this heart wrenching tweet popped up on my X feed. It came into my feed because a number of my friends and followers were commenting on the sad news.
What Samantha’s husband Ryan was battling was a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. It’s the same form of brain cancer that took Jon Boorman from all of us almost exactly three years ago. I wrote about Jon and his impact on me about a year ago in, Live Your Best Life.
This incurable form of cancer had also claimed the life of a friend of mine a year ago.
So whenever I hear or read that terrible word glioblastoma, it makes my skin crawl. I get mad! I hate it! It sucks! It’s taking too many young, vibrant people away from us way too early.
Where this sad story takes a turn is what happened after Samantha made that post.
On the bottom of her post Samantha wrote that Ryan achieved a dream a week ago by writing a book.
What an inspiration that is! To be able to write a book while battling something that is bound to take your life. What courage and determination that must have taken.
It puts Ryan in the same light as Jimmy Valvano who gave the memorable Don’t Give Up speech at the ESPYs in 1993 while dying from cancer. Randy Pausch who gave the memorable Last Lecture while dying of pancreatic cancer. Paul Kalanithi who wrote the renowned bestselling book When Breath Becomes Air while also dying from cancer.
Bestselling author Morgan Housel took Samantha’s tweet and said the following.
Samantha followed it with this.
Then that’s when the good of social media took over.
The part that nobody talks about anymore. The part we don’t see.
To see the magic of social media and all the good people out there who came together to make this dream come true is just awesome. (Click on the photos which link to the X thread to read all the good people said and did.)
Ryan’s book became a #1 bestseller and brought people together for a purpose of doing good. Of impacting lives. Showing that there are a lot of good people out there.
Tip of the cap to Morgan Housel for starting off such a great thing. Using his audience to do something so uplifting and magical for another. Also to everyone else who bought and shared it with their audiences. Things like this will make anyone smile.
I got home Friday after having one of the worst weeks that I’ve ever had. As I sat down to the sounds of my kids playing, I pulled up my X feed to the news that Ryan had passed away.
Suddenly the feeling from my bad week at work went away. My struggles and issues paled in comparison to what Samantha and her kids now had to deal with. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your kids Samantha.
Stories like this make you think. They make you evaluate a lot about life. In this case there was some magic and smiles before the tears and sadness.
Tomorrow I leave for a weekend vacation with my wife and kids. The trip takes on a different meaning, a different outlook. I leave with an entirely different view on a lot of things, thanks to this story.
RIP Ryan.
You can continue this great story by purchasing Ryan’s book below.
The Coffee Table ☕
Barry Ritholtz had just an on point post called Understanding Investing Regime Change. It’s a perfect reminder of what investors need to pay attention to and not to get lost in the day-to-day unimportant noise.
Monevator had an entertaining post called How to enjoy life like a billionaire. Great points on happiness and living life. There are things in our lives that we can enjoy just as much as a billionaire. This was a fun post to read. I liked the line “Life’s what you make it, not what you make”
I recently watched The Equalizer 3. It was the reuniting of Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning after it has been 20 years since they starred together in the massive hit movie Man on Fire. I was a fan of The Equalizer but not so much The Equalizer 2. I wasn’t all that excited to see the third until I saw how good the reviews were. It was very good and cements how Denzel Washington is one of the best actors ever.
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