I believe — actually I’m sure — he thought this should bring luck. He was a superstitious man. Thinking about the future was the way he found to keep hope alive. The bastard made me laugh until the very end. He knew about it. He didn’t tell me. He didn’t see me crying.

And suddenly, the next year was over before it even started.

My mother picked me up at school and we went to the hospital. The doctor told the news with all the sensitivity that doctors lose over the years. My mother cried. She did have a tiny bit of hope. As I said before, everyone does. I felt the blow. What does it mean? Wasn’t it just a regular disease, the kind of disease doctors heal with a shot? I hated you, dad. I felt betrayed. I screamed with anger in the hospital, until I realized my father was not around to ground me. I cried.

Then, my father was once again a father to me. With a shoebox under her arm, a nurse came by to comfort me. The box was full of sealed envelopes, with sentences where the address should be. I couldn’t understand exactly what was going on. The nurse then handed me a letter. The only letter that was out of the box.

“Your dad asked me to give you this letter. He spent the whole week writing these, and he wants you read it. Be strong.” the nurse said, holding me.

The envelope read WHEN I’M GONE. I opened it.

Son,
If you’re reading this, I’m dead. I’m sorry. I knew I was going to die.
I didn’t want to tell you what was going to happen, I didn’t want to see you crying. Well, it looks like I’ve made it. I think that a man who’s about to die has the right to act a little bit selfish.
Well, as you can see, I still have a lot to teach you. After all, you don’t know crap about anything. So I wrote these letters for you. You must not open them before the right moment, OK? This is our deal.
I love you. Take care of your mom. You’re the man of the house now.
Love, dad.

Why?

In my (very) humble opinion, Twitter is one of the best social media platforms available today. Some might think the 140 character limit restrictive but in itself, that is the beauty of it. It forces you to think before you post, to consider your responses and make your point wisely.

Twitter chats are possibly the epitome of this: Questions and answer sessions on some truly fantastic topics.

Just to clarify a couple of points before we move on. This post contains my tips on how I enjoy Twitter chats as a participant. These techniques really work for me so take what you like and feel free to leave the rest.

Yes, outwardly it’s the digital equivalent of going down the coffee shop (or pub in my case) with 200 mates, all shouting over each other in a cacophony of voices: chaos. They are not: the filtering power of Twitter puts paid to that.

There’s a great post on how you can host your own Twitter chat on the Hootsuite blog at http://blog.hootsuite.com/a-step-by-step-guide-to-twitter-chats/

Sonia Chopra Gregory (@freshsparks) has a great article on the marketing side of using Twitter chats at http://freshsparks.com/twitter-chats-for-marketing/

Finally, I’m hoping for this to be a ‘living document’: One that I will endeavour to keep up-to-date as necessary. Twitter chats will evolve and take on new forms — after all that is what social media is all about!