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About a month ago I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting a great blogger, and we got into some fantastic discussion about what drives our creativity. A question he asked me about a certain children's book project I am working on spurred a whole passionate deluge of my love of languages - the musicality, the concepts they try to embody but somehow just miss, the vehicles they are for connection and human emotion, etc. Having grown up in a household where Spanish and Italian were spoken, having married a Brazilian, having taken French, I am completely in love with the musicality and emotional intensity of the Latin-based languages. And, as I was explaining this to him, it was the focus of my mission to bring that musicality and vibrancy to life in my little picture book, but using the English language. I specifically did not use poetry, but wanted a poetic feeling - just like the every day conversation in Latin-based countries provide a poetry to their communications, just because it is and not because it is sought.

He turned to me and gave me perhaps one of the nicest compliments and soundest career advice I have received to date: "Wow. I can tell this is your passion, and it is so beautiful and such a different take on words. You should make this the quest of your blog - the search for understanding the moods of words, and bringing that musicality and lyricism of the more romantic languages to English." He gave me more tips, and we fleshed the idea out for quite a bit that evening. His advice, and my love of words has really resonated in my mind.

Why not explore what words and sounds and writing can do and can become? Why not break down the barriers and stereotypes that accompany a language? And I am not just talking grammar and spelling, but something deeper then that. Why not go beyond translation, but into transcendence?

I know I am sounding like an Impressionist, but isn't that what words really are? The embodiments of impressions and perceptions? Monet, Manet, Rachmoninov, Debussy, Baudelaire, Conrad and scores of others all knew this. Their brilliance enchants us, not simply because of the mastery of techniqe, but also because they allow us, the observer and communicator, to both see/ hear/read an image and to also carry/enfuse it with meaning. Their works are both clear and recognizeable while at the same time being elusive enough that we strive to reach for them.

Languages, due to the centuries of evolution and our necessity for it, our playfulness with it, our desire to express ourselves, also has the same qualities of Impressionist art. And perhaps even something more, because Language is a living, breathing thing that grows and lives or dies at our arbitrary whims.

And so, here is what I propose.

This website and this blog have been up for a little over a year now. You have seen me experiment with form and style on this blog over these past 12 months. And while it has been a fun ride, I had always been missing something - direction and purpose. And I believe that I have found it. Will there still be experimenting? You bet. Will there be discovery and adventure? I hope so! But the journey will revolve around what enamors me most about reading and writing: the moment where we try to capture as pristinely and honesty as possible something which is intangible.

Hope you can come along for the ride! As point of departure, I hope you enjoy this, by the great Debussy.