Passion and Remembrance both Spell Love

"E poi ci troveremo come le star a bere del whisky al Roxy bar o forse non c'incontreremo mai ognuno a rincorrere i suoi guai / ognuno col suo viaggio ognuno diverso e ognuno in fondo perso dentro i fatti suoi" [Vasco Rossi, Italian pop singer, 1983]

And here's my very poor translation: "Maybe we'll meet, like the stars, and have a drink at the Roxy bar. Or maybe we shall never meet. Each of us chasing our troubles / each with our journey, each different. Each lost in our own stuff."

This song means a lot to me and to the many people who lived those shared moments growing up. I suspect you have a song like that in your CD collection. You put it on at home after a long week, close your eyes, and are transported to another place and time. This song is from Vasco's album: Vita Spericolata, which means roughly living a life outside the norm (the root word is danger). In my post about Made in Italy: Music to my Ears, I wrote:

But Vasco greatest claim to fame and what still sells out at his concerts was the fact that his lyrics communicated the private inner feelings of every day life. His language is controversial, thought-provoking and ironic.

In a way, he was the rock blogger way before blogs were even imagined -- authentic, truthful and instantly emotional. People went and still go to his concerts (sold out every single time) to recognize they belong together; they celebrate life, dreams, love, and join a real friend.

I've been humming that song for a couple of days now for several reasons.

Our good friend David Armano published a very compelling post on The End of Thought Leadership (as we Know it) a few days ago to announce the publication of an article in BusinessWeek. The topic: It's the Conversation Economy, Stupid -- the premise: as consumer markets fragment, marketers and designers must understand how platforms evolve and influence human behavior. In his post, David writes:

It's always been about us.  About people.  Eliminate the word "blog" from your vocabulary and you are still left with the power of personal publishing and content distribution.  These ideals will never go away—they are here to stay.  This is not a fad.

David walks the talk, acknowledging all the people and platforms that made this article possible in the Anatomy of an Idea.

I'm talking about memories as in remembrance. Our community builder, marketer CK, just experienced one of the toughest weeks of her life. She and sister Melissa honored the memory of their mother, Sandra J. Kerley, by celebrating with family and friends. CK makes a wonderful distinction between hard and bad. Just because things are difficult, it doesn't mean we cannot get through them. In fact, the only way across is often through.

Cam Beck set up a site to honor mother and daughter in the best way possible: by helping build for the community.

"Maybe we'll meet, like the stars, and have a drink at the Roxy bar. Or maybe we shall never meet. Each of us chasing our troubles / each with our journey, each different. Each lost in our own stuff." Passion and remembrance both spell love. This is the stuff we're made of.

Comments

[David Armano]

Valeria,

What a wonderful way to thread these thoughts together. I'm singing too though I don't know the melody :)

It's always amazing to see the movements in the blogosphere flow in concert. Though CK's situation is a tragedy, at least we can witness the strength of community as it takes action.

Beautiful post.

[gianandrea facchini]

valeria, i would add the lyrics from another singer born in your neighborhood: ligabue.

Certe notti c'hai qualche ferita
che qualche tua amica disinfetterà.
Certe notti coi bar che son chiusi
al primo autogrill c'è chi festeggerà.

E si può restare soli
certe notti qui
che chi s'accontenta gode
così, così
Certe notti sei sveglio
o non sarai sveglio mai
ci vediamo da Mario prima o poi.

Same places, same fog, same pain and then friends bringing the sun in our heart.

I leave the translation to you, my friend.

[Valeria Maltoni]

David -- I was thinking about the whole idea of platforms and megaphones in concert with social media, and to me it felt like notes falling into place. It's not as much a populist version of official publishing: it is what publishing is looking like more and more. Well done on the article!

Gianandrea -- lyrics are so difficult to translate because they relate more deeply to moods, scents, and places we have been. Ligabue conveys the feelings of those moments: reaching out to a friend who needs helps; improvising a party at a gas station convenience store when the pubs are closed; how some nights we can be alone with our thoughts...

[Terri Waterman]

Thank you Valeria. With all the stuff that goes into raising two girls under 2, I sometimes feel way out of touch, especially with the lack of sleep. But I try to remind myself always that we are connected. The experience is there, watching little babies learning to communicate - it's amazing how we figure it out (and how much we burden those who are teaching us - that's where the love comes in). And thoughts - I see them as part of one bowl of spaghetti, all intertwined, can't tell where one begins and one ends (at a glance at least). And really, thoughts end up being a bunch of analogies as we try to understand the world around us. But how beautiful they end up being when we put our creativity into it!