3/4/17 "Make Me Smile" by Chicago.
I watched a documentary on my plane ride about this fantastic band, which is still going strong some 30+ studio albums later. "Make Me Smile" was released in 1970 on their second album. LISTEN!
3/11/17 "Filthy" by Justin Timberlake
I blame this one on my wife. Who knew that Justin Timberlake's music would start to grow on me. Megan has been playing this song frequently (along with the cool music video) for the last couple of weeks and it found its way into my head.
SIDE NOTE: The older I get, the more I find myself to be less of a music snob and more of a music lover. 10 years ago if you told me I would be listening to Justin Timberlake and enjoying his music, I would have slapped you. Twice. But I'm to the point now where I'm over being cool about music. I just love it- no matter what.
Anyway, this song "Filthy" is from Timberlake's new 2018 album MAN OF THE WOODS and is the opening track. LISTEN!
OK, I'm caught up on songs. Now I'm gonna be a regular old blogger and tell you a story.
I just got back from Italy. It was a business/pleasure trip. It felt like a homecoming. Man, I love Italy- lived there for nearly 2 years and ache and long for it regularly.
We started in a charming town near Venice called Conegliano, that's where I was staying for work- after visiting the area I rented a car and me and the wifey just set loose across the Italian countryside. It was a blast!
Here were our stops: Ascoli Piceno, Positano, Pompeii and a town called Avellino.
Avellino would never be a typical visit for American tourists by any means but it has a particular level of importance for me.
In late 1998 I was a Mormon Missionary in Italy. I was 19 years old and it was my first time away from my family and my first time in a foreign country. This is a fairly typical situation for someone who has grown up Mormon. I first arrived in Italy in early October and spent 6 weeks in the mountainous southern city of Potenza before I was transferred to nearby Avellino and made into a trainer for a new ("greenie") missionary.
Without going into too many details, I'll tell you that I had a horrible few months in Avellino. I spent my first Christmas away from home (I was horribly homesick) and I did not get along with my companion. The LDS church in Avellino was fragile, to say the least. Another missionary (young, 20 year old like me) was the branch president there and we had a handful of inexperienced members of the church.
Work was tough- I barely spoke Italian and most of the people in this city had been conditioned to ignore us as we walked past them on the street or knocked on their doors trying to teach them about The Book of Mormon. There's an Italian form of patriotism that is ingrained in them and they are naturally turned off by the idea of joining another church. Long story short, for an optimistic and convicted Mormon teenage boy (holy moly was I young) converting Italians to Mormonism was trying.
OK, so let me get to the point of this story- I spent two difficult months in Avellino- It was cold, bleak, lonely and just downright sad- easily the hardest time of my life up to that point.
Nearly 20 years have passed. The fledgling LDS branch in Avellino is now closed and the missionaries are long gone. I have no idea what happened to those in the area who had been baptized into our church- either they stopped going or started travelling hours to the nearest branch. I have only my memories of a trying two months for what seemed like nothing.
Who knows why, but the memory of Avellino just hurts. And when I figured I was going to be close to the city while visiting, I asked my wife if we could go visit. Of course, she was cool with it because she's the best.
We arrived Saturday evening last week. As we drove to the city center, close to were my small apartment was situated, everything became completely unfamiliar to me. We drove around for a bit trying to find a parking space and ultimately found ourselves outside the city center. We started wandering, while I looked at a map hoping to find something, anything that could pin-point where familiarity lied.
Then we wandered into Piazza Della Libertá- and immediately I was overwhelmed with emotion as I remembered where I was. I wandered, with my good wife in tow, toward the northeast corner of the square where Via Santissima Trinitá, the street I called home for two short months of my life, is found. Soon, I found my apartment as I became engulfed with emotion. The tears welled in my eyes as I ached for that sad, lonely 19 year old that was just a shadow of a memory of what I had become 20 years later.
After snapping a few photos of these once-familiar places, I wandered back into the piazza, sat down near the fountain and just let out years of pent up hurt. It was sad and beautiful and felt so good to let it out. I can't explain how or why I needed to do this- I suppose I just needed to make peace with Avellino and with other parts of myself that are evolving as I try to understand what religion means to me and why I spent 2 years preaching Mormon doctrine to the Italian people (who I love dearly)
I quickly snapped this photo of me and my lady in Piazza Della Libertá before collecting myself and going to get some dinner with the woman I love, who's supported me through so much and was right there for me as I let a part of me that was hurting find some peace.
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