Words matter. Yes, but what do the words curation and pollination have to do with each other?

First, before answering, what led me to reflect on these two words?

Background

Coming home from a long, long day, before turning in, I logged “in here” and took a quick stroll through my Feed. Too tired to really focus much, I was just about to “call it” and shut everything down, when a post titled A Question of Growth, written by @headchange, caught my eye. I’m very glad it did.

Reading through the post and the comments which followed, their “heartfelt” expressions of sympathy and support for each other really touched me (now … I’m a guy, so I don’t know how they touched me, I just know they did … 😊)

Rather than attempt to try and recreate the content here in any way and “spoil” it somehow, just trust me. It is worth your time to go to this post and read through it all, including their comments to each other. It was the inspiration for my writing this post and I believe you will find it of value to find out why.

[Note: Feel free to blow on past my comment, as I am just a “johnny-come-lately” add-on to a group that I believe has been together, in Community, for some time.]

Curation

Is it just me or do others of my fellow Steemians find this to be a strange word? I may have heard it before joining our Steem Community. I don’t know. It certainly didn’t make any impression on me, if I had heard it. What does it mean?

”Social curation is collaborative sharing of Web content organized around one or more particular themes or topics.”

Definition of Social Curation on WhatIs.com

Uhhh ... OK, for me, that isn't a lot of help ...

”It’s a term that is widely used, yet the definition (at least in the social media marketing sense) is murky and unspecific.

Extract from Defining Digital Content Curation by Erica Ayotte

So … It isn’t just me that finds the word to be “hard to get your head around.” There's a little comfort in that … Reading Erica's blog may be of some value to you, if you want to "go deeper" ...

Whether I like it or not, curation is the word we use all the time in our Steem Community. In first starting out, I whizzed through a lot of the details quickly and just too easily settled on the two main paths to engagement being the writing of your own posts (authoring) or commenting on others posts (curating).

More recently, I have come to have a deeper appreciation of and respect for there being a lot more going on than that (yes, in the “wild west” frontier of our Steem Community, I know there are spammers, scammers, and all sort of bots “in here” as well, but that is not what this post is about …).

Like what?

To first illustrate and give examples (which will "connect" I imagine with many of you), aside from the “PIFC team,” @pifc, that is the focus of this post, I am somewhat hesitant to mention others, as I am still pretty “new” in here and am certain there are many very good group efforts going on, of which I know absolutely nothing.

But, examples are always helpful, so I will mention and give “shout outs” to three, which have been helpful to me, in starting into my "journey:"

PALnet and their Minnow Support Project. I don’t know, but I suppose this might be the “granddaddy” of them all or the biggest or both … All I know is there are some very dedicated people there who don’t appear to really sleep, as far as I can tell … They are doing great work and I imagine that has probably been true for a long time.
The Helpienaut team, @helpie, led by “King @meno,” who was introduced to me by @zxy066. First welcomed there by @paintingangels, they are a very interesting mix of people who working closely in support of each other and are fun to be around.
Only very recently, as one of our all-important Witnesses, I have voted for @SteemCommunity, which is the team of @abh12345 and @paulag. I am only just learning about their “Curation and Engagement League” and not yet officially a member (and what that requires …). So far, though, I have been impressed with what I have seen.

So, can we say curation encompasses words that are a little clearer (at least to me), like community and engagement? I think so …

Full disclosure: Most all of my life has been spent more as an independent, self-sufficient, "island unto myself" sort of guy. Just the way I was raised. And never before now online. So ... All of this is definitely new territory for me, but I'm working on it ...

So … What is the word pollination doing in this post?

Pollination - Birds and the Bees

What? Are you veering off into some sort of NSFW content here @roleerob? Where are you going with this? Well, we have to try and market what we have to offer and we’ve always been told “sex sells” right? 😧 Just kidding … 😊

In all seriousness, if you’ll “hear me out,” I think I can “connect the dots.” In a way, I believe you will find of value in reflecting on these words yourself.

As mentioned sometimes, in my “old life,” I travelled a lot – in the mining industry. After a time, I realized one of the single greatest contributions I made in my role had nothing to do with my job. Or did it?

Since I was always “dropping in” and catching up with everyone about what was going on in “their corner of the world,” I grew pretty close with a bunch of people, who looked forward to seeing me the next time. One of the key reasons why was I could tell them details about what was going on with everyone else. That otherwise, they were unlikely to know.

Given all the “windshield time” I had, at that stage of my life, reflecting came easily. I honestly can’t recall the specifics of the moment of inspiration, but I distinctly remember “the light bulb going on” one day, in thinking our work was like bees buzzing about, pollinating flowers here, there, and everywhere.

Given the communal nature of bees, are we not, in working away “in here” providing a similar function?

Coming full circle back to the post written by @headchange, I would like to take a closer look at the word pollination. What does this word mean?

*”The transfer of pollen to a stigma, ovule, flower, or plant to allow fertilization.

‘the flowers depend on bees for pollination’

Definition of Pollination in English Oxford dictionary

Growing up in an orchard, I have always had a pretty simple picture of bees being associated with flowers. They were always just inextricably linked to me. So, think about flowers.

At a minimum, flowers are very pretty. They may only be ornamental, but still they brighten our day, when we see them. That alone has value. Think about that in the context of “curating” and building a community. Do your fellow Steemians brighten up, when they see you coming?

But flowers are more than just ornamental. They are also part of the process of plants reproducing and generating new life. How? Through their part in the process of creating fruit!

“The fruits of our labor.” How often have we heard that phrase? Please stop and think about it a little more closely, in the light of what I have written. Life comes from fruit. Multiplication comes from fruit.

If our Steem Community is going to not only survive, but prosper and grow, we need to be inspired about the potential of what our individual contributions, combined together, brings “to life.” Being a part of an enterprise that reaches others, by word-of-mouth, and encourages them to join, so that we “multiply.”

The benefit of all that “can be,” while certainly encouraging from a dollars and cents point-of-view (and maybe that is what gets you “in the flow,” for starters), has value well beyond financial measurements. Lots to think about!

Closing

Beyond the simple dollars and cents of it, in my efforts to more clearly understand the value of participating “in here,” I want to thank the “PIFC team,” @pifc, in general, led by the efforts of @thedarkhorse, and the “reach out,” in particular of @headchange, who chose to bring me to their attention (still don’t know the story of where / how she found my post to begin with …) for helping me. Not just by their words. But, by their example.

So, while you’re “steeming along” out there and “curating” away in this “beehive of activity” that our Steem Community represents, I trust you will find this post to be of some value to you. In gaining a deeper appreciation for what "can be," as we work together "in here."

Please let me know what you think / how you feel. "From the heart," in whatever way you deem best ... I'd really appreciate hearing from you.

Respectfully, fellow Steemian @roleerob

Posted using MSPSteem and immutably “enshrined in the blockchain” on Wednesday, 11 July 2018!

P.S. Bees are fascinating creatures to me. Here are a couple of very interesting "no extra charge" trivia items about them, which you may not know (learned from my brother-in-law, a professional beekeeper for years):

Learning he had a contract to pollinate orchards out in California (he lived in Colorado), I asked him how he was going to pull that off, since, as far as I knew, they were constant "flights in motion" and he wouldn't be able to get them all. Answer? Bees "come home to roost" at night by all flying into their hive. Just stick a plug in the little hole through which they entered and you have them all "bottled up," until you take the plug out!
Honey is honey, right? NO! Arriving early in California (new territory for him), he had to keep his bees "busy." So, he parked them up in the foothills and let them out. Where a predominant part of the vegetation was manzanita bushes. It was Spring and they were in bloom. His bees did "what bees do" and made honey from them. He gave me a sample of their "handiwork." My goodness! 😧 Absolutely "knocks your socks off!" Can't say it was "bad, as it was honey, after all, and somewhat sweet. But, a powerful taste that you won't soon forget. Given the nature of these hardy bushes, I guess it is "built in" somehow ...

Reflections: Curation and Pollination

Background

Curation

Pollination - Birds and the Bees

Closing

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