At the click of a button I can have any sort of music piped into my earbuds, whether it be rock, jazz, or even a classical symphony. Or better yet, I can choose Fado. Fado is the soulful and passionate music sung by Portuguese vibrato singers in cafes and taverns in Lisbon. The meaning of the word Fado comes from the Latin word fatum, or fate, which is "the inexorable destiny that is stopped by nothing" as several writers on the internet seem to quote when explaining Fado.
The attraction of this melancholy music for me isn't the lyrics, especially since it is sung in Portuguese, a language I do not understand. Yet, when listening to fadistas it is clear they sing of lost love, misfortune or despair. It is this yearning and desire in the music that requires no translation to stir my soul. As is explained in a Portuguese saying, "Fado can't be seen or heard; it simply happens."
So when my day is filled with analytical left-brain thinking, with seemingly endless discussions about technology, servers and data - things that apparently have such urgency that they set off cell phone alerts in the middle of the night - well, it is a welcome break to just sit back and let the elusive and haunting beauty of Fado find my soul again. So for a time I am transported to a different world, one where love, life and beauty remind me of what it is to simply "be" once again.
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