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England’s Hurts song, ‘Devotion’ featuring Kylie Minogue is an anthem-like song is about infidelity. Hurt, a Manchester (UK) group told the publication NME [http://www.nme.com/news/hurts/52262] that they had finished an album about women but needed a woman to sing on it. Being big fans of Australian Kylie Minogue, they asked if she would contribute to the album. She said yes, and here you have it. I like this band. Check out their biography here http://eventful.com/performers/hurt-/P0-001-000003659-0 They don’t tour in New York — yet.

Starting back in June, I assigned myself a 13-week challenge that has now stretched past that to about 15 weeks and I’m not done yet. I didn’t post last week because of the holiday, but I hope you don’t think I’ve fallen short of the goal line.

This is what 13Tuesdays is all about:

Earlier this summer, in exploring New York, I found the Shrine Church of St. Anthony in Soho. . I love exploring New York’s churches as they are such a part of the culture of this city and are underappreciated. The church was built in 1866 to minister to Italian immigrants and is just off Houston Street. It happened that the church was celebrating St. Anthony that weekend and I decided to attend the mass.

I thought about these concepts and decided that I wanted to explore each one and share what I learned. But, I didn’t want to take a one-sided religious trek, but to see what I could find about each in a spiritual context and, I would have the opportunity to reflect on each idea.

All of that brings me to devotion, this week’s reflection. The site, Book Rags, aggregates a number of guides to devotion and is a good place to start this reflection with links and definitions. [http://www.bookrags.com/Devotion]

Then, typing “devotion” into my usual search engine, I found this posting on Yoga World http://www.yogaworld.org/amazing/devotion2.htm

It’s a great place to start in looking at devotion — not specific to a particular religion.

The steps described:

• 1.       Love and giving of yourself
• 2.       Humility – let go of pride and arrogance – give to the spirit
• 3.       See the spiritual nature of everyone you meet, in everything.

In this reflection, I’m drawn to India and the writings of gurus such as Swami Krishnananda, who describes spiritual devotion http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/disc/disc_11.html. Along the way, I first read the word, “bakhti,” a word from Hinduism that teaches “the path of love and devotion.” The site http://wanderling.tripod.com/bhakti.html discusses this Indian practice. The http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org/mt/bhakti-devotion.htm site explains that the guiding principal for bakhti is to understand that God is everywhere. “We are in him, and he is in us.” The thought that I carry away is this: “When a child of five is sitting near you, you will never dare to do anything which is wrong.”

Searching for Faith

In doing this research, I found Dani Shapiro on Barnes and Noble with a listing for her new book “Devotion: A Memoir.”

The blurb about the book says Shapiro — who is in her 40s, was raised in a Jewish home, and going through a great deal personal turmoil — sought to understand faith and asked the questions “we all ask,” sooner or later, like I have been doing here, and tells the story of her search for spirituality Her search took her through traditional religious venues as well as through non-Western traditions and is shared in the book, which you can find here http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Devotion/Dani-Shapiro/e/9780061628344

Even More Random Serendipity

Searching on devotion leads to me to music, and then this interview with Timothy Brennan on his book, “Secular Devotion: Afro-Latin Music and Imperial Jazz..”

You can read the interview here http://www.rorotoko.com/index.php/article/brennan_timothy_book_interview_secular_devotion/P1/ and consider the writer’s ideas on militarism and Jazz, and Afro-Cuban music – and it works!

So, this week, #devotion yielded the idea of giving of yourself, seeing God everywhere (bhahki) , searching many different place for faith (Shapiro) and understanding the simple devotion of music.

I hope this post gives you a start on thinking about devotion and inspires you to read the linked articles. If it does, please come back and leave a comment. This is not a one-sided effort, I hope to inspire you to a conversation. It’s been a devoted effort.

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[This is the first post in a series of posts reporting learning from the road.]

The 140 Conference Road Trip began on Aug. 22 with perhaps one of the most unusual meetups in the short history of social media – at the Continental Airlines baggage check. Five Cleveland area folks took Jeff Pulver up on his offer to begin his 12-state, 8-day trek through the Midwest by meeting at the luggage carousel.  And, it was there that I met Alan Weinkrantz in person after lots of phone calls in the days prior to the Sunday start of the event. I joined Alan and Jeff as the “embedded” journalist on the journey.

Following are embedded videos. I used a Kodak Zi8 camcorder to record interviews with people whom I met along the way at the various meetups scheduled in cities along our route. I have posted a total of 50 videos on my Facebook.com/mo.krochmal profile page. Most of the videos were shot on location and uploaded as we drove to the next stop along the way, using either our Sprint hotspot, or the WAAV WiFi technology we carried with us in the Buick Enclave we drove as part of GM’s sponsorship.

I tried to limit the videos to 30 seconds, more or less and asked folks to talk about social media in their life and in their community.

1.      CLEVELAND — I this video, hear John Burnell, a journalist, talk about the impact social media has had on his life. Then, after Jeff Pulver arrives, Kathleen Colan, who tweets @mongoosemetrics and @consumerati, talks about meeting Krochmal for the first time in person, after sharing conversations through Twitter.  Kasey Crabtree talks about how social media has made an impact on her social life – she has met her life “peeps.” (Mo Krochmal Video)

2.       After Cleveland, the road trip grind began in luxurious earnesty in our cocoa brown Buick Enclave and its trusty GPS as well as our onboard GPS systems from WAAV and from Sprint helping us make stops in Columbus for coffee and then at Blind Bob’s, a restaurant in the artsy Oregon section of Dayton. We, of course, checked in on Foursquare, but no one was going to be the mayor of Blind Bob’s because the real mayor of Dayton had come to greet us.  Mayor Gary Leitzell spoke about his blog, and his website and promoted Dayton as a place welcoming to technology and social media and of better days ahead. (Mo Krochmal Video)

3.       The first day of the road trip ended with a meetup in Cincinnati at the Cadillac Ranch near the city’s center at Fountain Square. There after some amazing virgin Bloody Mary’s to recover energy, and some appetizers, Jeff spoke to the social-media community. Douglass McDonald of the Cincinnati Museum Center talked about the city’s great business leaders such as Proctor and Gamble and Macys and then explained how his field, museum’s have to learn from them and engage the public. (Mo Krochmal Video)

4.       After a cozy night’s sleep in the Doubletree Inn at the Cincinnati Airport (actually in Kentucky) Day 2 of the road trip took us to Indianapolis but first a stop in Noblesville, Indiana, where we met the incomparable Chris Theisen of Hare Chevrolet, who is director of digital communications for the auto dealership and a pioneer in the use of social media. He talked to us about how the next generation of automobiles are going to engage communities and interact. (Mo Krochmal Video)

5.       After getting a ride into Indianapolis in a shiny black Camaro, with Jeff Pulver at the wheel, In Indianapolis, we were surprised with a huge crowd at Scotty’s Brew Pub at lunch. Then, we learned how the Indy Motor Speedway is using social media and heard from Melissa DeJesus, who is blogging for the Speedway and does outreach to the Indianapolis Latino community. (Mo Krochmal Video)

6.       From Indianapolis, we drove to St. Louis, stopping for a cup of coffee in Bloomington, Indiana, the home of the University of Indiana. We didn’t have enough time to linger and it stayed on schedule, arriving at the Robust Wine Bar with a crowd of dynamic St. Louisans. Great folks and so many stories to tell.  One of our favorites was Chris Reimer, CMO of the Scorch Agency and an entrepreneur in his own right, who combined social media and t shirts to blaze create a very successful business. (Mo Krochmal Video)

7.       The next morning we drove through Missouri to hit Kansas City, Kansas, where we had a VIP tour of GM’s Fairfax Assembly. One of the workers in this amazing automobile plant gave us a quick chat while he was going about his work on a Buick LaCrosse. (Mo Krochmal Video)

8.       After the plant tour, we doubled back in Kansas City, to meet more social medians at Jasper’s Italian Restaurant. More fantastic stories, and dynamic folks at this lunchtime meetup in Missouri. We were blown away by the folks and enjoyed talking with Gigi Belmonico of Kansas City, an image consultant and a self-styled “bombshell” coach, has a large following on Twitter and is going on her own road trip to teach women about social media. (Mo Krochmal Video)

1.       After Kansas City, we made our way to Iowa and a must-stop at the site of the “Field of Dreams” after meeting a bunch of local characters in nearby Dyersville. You can spend some time getting a small-town feel and learn about the on-going draw of the field of dreams by visiting Mo Krochmal’s Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/mo.krochmal. It was a busy day at the cornfield as word came out that it is for sale for $5.5 million while people like Cathy Gilligan spoke to us about the annual pilgrimage she makes with her children to visit the tiny patch of grass with a gravel pitching mound. We followed that with a great meetup outdoors on the terrace of the Urban Wine Company in Omaha, and the next morning with chicken-fried steak and two kinds of gravy for breakfast at the 11-worth Café on Leavenworth. As we were leaving, the daughter of the family-run restaurant chatted with us about how the Omaha institution has used social media and the surprising answer for whom was the catalyst for this change. You have to watch this video of Christine Caniglia! (Mo Krochmal Video)

9.       The road trip reached its northernmost point in Fargo, ND., actually across the river in Moorehead, Minn., where for dinner at John Alexander’s Restaurant. Here we got to hear how Brenda Hagel manages communities and has used social media to connect. (Mo Krochmal Video)

10.   The road allows for serendipity and so it was as we drove through Harmony, Minn. We say a bunch of American flags flying and thought we definitely should pull over and investigate. There we found James Hultgren and his father and Cory John Scrabeck scrambling around to arrange for Dobie Days, a great celebration of patriotism and veterans service. Hear them tell the story on the video. (Mo Krochmal Video)

11.   In Madison, Wisc., we had perhaps the second most unusual meetup was on Day 6 at The Century House, a furniture store.  Watch this video with Melissa Meyer of Madison, Wisc., who tweets as @aquariusmissy This was a fun interview as she and her kids were enjoying a neat chair at The Century House, which hosted our meetup with sandwiches and great coffee and amazing furniture. (Mo Krochmal Video)

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