My father used this phrase many times in his life, "Today is the best day of my life because today I can share my music with you..." For me it became a philosophy of life. Sharing is one of the most beautiful and intimate things a human being can do. When someone shares, that person is revealing to all of us part of who he/she is. Sometimes, it takes a lot of courage to do this but when it is done, wonderful things happen.
Can you imagine a world where Van Gogh didn't share his paintings? or a world where Christopher Columbus didn't share his vision? What about Gandhi, Rousseau, Garcia Marquez, Mandela, Gaudi, Dali, Martin Luther King, Simon Bolivar, Pele.... What they shared to us has moved and changed the world and they all shared their talents, art, words, philosophy and visions in many different ways and different languages.
The language is not a barrier when the act is strong enough to make it disappear, this is what I think.
When I started sharing my father's music online on 1999 on MP3.com, I realized that the internet is a world without boundaries. No visa, no passport required to travel all around the world to a different server and see wonderful videos, pictures, texts, listen to music I never heard. People from all over the world was traveling to my father's page on MP3.com to enjoy his music to read his stories... I started to get emails from different parts of the world and also in different languages.
When I saw that my father's music became "The act strong enough to make languages disappear" I realized that where is no language is inside us, in heart and soul, so I decided to try something different, something that for being able to achieve it, I would need help from all over the world.
I sent an email to all my father's fan-base asking is they would like to help me translate my father's MP3.com page and his melody stories to different languages... Contradictory isn't it? If my father's music had no boundaries and language was not needed to share his music and for people to listen to it, why I asked for this help to fans?
The answer is, respect. Respect to all the people that took the time to come to my fathers page on MP3.com, listen to his music, share it to their loved ones even when they didn't understand the words written in English. If I could be able to share my father's words in their own language, they would understand more my father's music and philosophy.
Well, the email was sent, I went out to have a coffee with some friends and when I came back to my computer, 4 replies...
German, Spanish, French and Portuguese translations were offered!! More replies... Polish, Chinese, Hebrew, Croatian, Italian, Japanese, Russian translations too!!
My father's MP3.com page got translated to 17 languages, I could not believe it! The way these fans shared their joy for my father's music gave my father so much joy. When he saw all these beautiful response he said.... "Well, I think we need to translate my phrase too" :)
Sharing thoughts and feelings is sometimes misunderstood as vulnerability and that people can hurt us more by knowing more about us... I think the opposite. When you have the courage to share your thoughts and feelings to the world it is because you are confident about who you are, confident about yourself and becoming transparent makes you even stronger.
Sharing has a meaning, sharing has a purpose, sharing has no language...