Yesterday I nervously walked into the Green Room of the War Memorial for the 2010 Mayor’s Art Award Ceremony. Carlos Santana was honored with a lifetime achievement award and I was one of 400 guests at this invite only event. I was nervous, not knowing what to expect and yet it ended up being a nice time. People mingled over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as a group called Futuro Picante played. We all wore nametags but I didn’t really know whom I was surrounded by until I got home and googled a bunch of people. (Yep – I googled… I’m a nerd, I know.)
Turns out I chatted with some women from the International Museum of Women, talked with a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger who has performed with renowned jazz artists Israel Cachao Lopez, Max Roach, Omar Sosa and Dizzy Gillespie, chatted on the elevator with a woman who is the head of a major hospital here, stood next to a woman who is the director of a major gallery here, and spoke to a bunch of other people whom once I looked them up my jaw dropped. I’m kind of glad I didn’t know who they were because I would have been too nervous to chat and yet all of my conversations were easy going and very genuine. I am naturally an introvert and yet in settings like this I know how to pull it together and socialize.
The best part of the evening was listening to Santana’s acceptance speech. He said a few things that really touched me and reminded me of why it’s important to keep going. He talked about what it means to be “special” versus being “significantly meaningful”. He said that being “special” becomes about your ego but being significantly meaningful is about being a tool, a vehicle in this world to be used for a greater purpose. He said, “ You have a purpose, a job to do that has nothing to do with you.” He encouraged us all to get out of our own way and to allow ourselves to be used up, to do what we were born to do. Those were reminders I needed to hear. There were other sweet moments as well that I loved. I liked how he talks with his hands and he thanked his mom several times as he talked. He called her mommy but with his Spanish accent it was cute and short like 'mom-mi'.
The whole thing was a really cool experience.
