Phil's Boring Blog

Burning Boxes in the Twittersphere October 20, 2009

Boxes! Boxes, boxes, boxes — but at last we’ve unpacked them all and Sue & I are getting settled in our new home. Sue was officially licensed to her new post as Priest-in-Charge of Henlow & Langford last week, first Sunday services now over & done and I’ve survived the endless round of, “… and this is Phil, our new priest’s husband.” All in all, it’s been great to be welcomed by such a lovely bunch of friendly people.

Back to the boxes, however: you’ll be pleased to know we haven’t burnt them — most are going back to the removals company whilst the odd few that aren’t fit for reuse are going for recycling (Bedfordshire is very hot on recycling).

But I decided to celebrate yesterday by flattening a virtual box in the twittersphere, and posted:

notbovvered Thinking outside the box isn’t good enough. You need to step outside the box and flatten it. Permanently.19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

which led to some interesting conversations…

supersimbo @notbovvered burn the mutha!!19/10/2009 from web

authenticmedia @notbovvered There’s a box?19/10/2009 from SeesmicKercal @notbovvered Sadly I stepped out of one box, into another box and am watching the latter being flattened with me still in it.19/10/2009 from web

~~~waves of empathy for Kercal, everybody!~~~

Since authenticmedia seemed a tad bemused, I identified the box for them, but they either didn’t get it or didn’t want to:

notbovvered @authenticmedia Yeah. It’s called Evangelicalism – and you guys are in it!! <crooked grin>19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

authenticmedia @notbovvered Question still stands…there’s a box?19/10/2009 from Seesmic

notbovvered @authenticmedia just because you can see the sky doesn’t mean you’re not in the box…19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

supersimbo was more willing to engage:

supersimbo @notbovvered now that i see what you were meaning, is it possible to define “evangelicalism” as a box? It means so many dif things now….19/10/2009 from webnotbovvered @supersimbo Too late, mate: you’ve done gone and burnt the mutha! Nuthin but smoke & ash now…
19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

supersimbo @notbovvered yea but i burnt the box we have put it in, not the actual thing “evangelicalism” or whatever it is………..19/10/2009 from web

notbovvered @supersimbo Sounds kinda like setting fire to a fart to me… (oops, naughty word: slapped wristie!!)19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

supersimbo @notbovvered phil is not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!19/10/2009 from web

Quite right, supersimbo, I am but a mischief maker 😉 — but let the conversation go on. Not sure how Keira Knightly got involved, but she did. If you understand, please enlighten me: there could even be a free book in it for you…

davidmkeen @notbovvered now you have to guzzle a bottle of wine and throw Keira Knightly in the air19/10/2009 from TweetDeck

davidmkeen @notbovvered so the box is full of free books then?19/10/2009 from TweetDeck

unicorntreebks @notbovvered box thing – is it ok then if I store what was in the box on the bookshelves for all to see the diversity and range??19/10/2009 from web

notbovvered @unicorntreebks I’d suggest putting it out for sale rather than storage (and I suspect there’s more than evangelicalism in your boxes!!)19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

cornerstonebks @notbovvered @unicorntreebks @supersimbo @authenticmedia I am not convinced by boundary-less existence outside boxes. It is a myth!19/10/2009 from web

supersimbo @Cornerstonebks that may have been my point about burning a box with stuff in it but the actual thing we thought we burnt is still there 🙂19/10/2009 from websupersimbo @Cornerstonebks ie: effects of evangelicalism, methods, failures etc are in the box but the actual thing is too big to be contained in a box19/10/2009 from web

… which kinda brings us to the end of the conversation, with thanks to everyone who joined in and apologies to anyone whose tweets I’ve missed. Had I known it was going to spark such a stimulating dialogue, I’d’ve come up with a hashtag like #evangelicalbox — so if you, gentle reader, choose to take up the challenge of my final question, perhaps you’d care to use it?

notbovvered What do posh chocolate and evangelicalism have in common? Both come in a box with lots of varieties and… [complete within 140 characters]19/10/2009 from Twitterrific

The 140 character limit only applies if you’re twittering: comments left here can be as long as you like, I guess. My own answer is “… and a ‘best before’ date that’s  long since passed for evangelicalism.” If you think otherwise, feel free to tell us why…