I'm back in Rio and it
feels so good.
Oddly, there doesn't
exist a word in english that defines one of brazil's most commonly used
words: saudade. If you were to attempt to find a solution to this
puzzle it would start with a combination of words including but not limited
to: longing, nostalgia, fondness, that feeling in your chest that you
just can't put into a word... Even of the tens+ of brazilians I've
asked over the years to help explain just what this word means, I still remain
answer free in terms of language, but believe I'm beginning to understand the
saudade feeling quite well.
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 Yesterday I landed in Rio after almost 2 years
away from this magical city. I'm here not because I had a life changing
"Aha!" moment that made me return on a whim, but with my with adidas
launching Y-3 (our Yohji Yamamoto collaboration) with beautiful designer/artist
Gilda Midani, in her spaces in Rio and Sao Pualo with a World Cup capsule
collection. [See left - woop woop thanks vogue brazil:) ]
After arriving in GIG
with 250lbs, to be exact, of promotion Y-3 gifts/press
releases/installations/etc (which was surprisingly uneventful at customs...was
honestly worried about brazilian jail) and a 14 hour flight, I somehow landed
full, but FULL, of energy and with one thing on my mind - FAVELAS. Before
I could get comfy in my hotel in Aproador or shower (TMI) I was in a taxi to
the Complexo do Alemao. On facebook I saw that the incredibly inspirational
Ilton Barros was giving a lecture at Fabrica Verde, a new
sustainable NGO operating in Rocinha and now the Complexo focused on bringing
used computers to students in the community who wouldn't otherwise have
access. I had no address, no telephone number, no contact with Ilton,
pretty bad Portuguese since I hadn't spoken in about 2 years, but luckily also
no shame.
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The driver was convinced
I was mistaken because "gringos don't go to the favelas" but took me
the hour trip from Ipanema to the Complexo and dropped me off at the address I
had found in the middle of the favela. Beating heart, sweaty palms, fueled with
optimism, I got out of the taxi full of hope and with fingers crossed. Low and
behold on the third floor, there was Ilton, giving a beautiful presentation of
his latest desfile de lixo (trash fashion show).
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There it was! Fashion
in the favelas. Ilton presenting to a room full of budding
fashionistas, making the most of the limited resources around them.
Que emociao, que
saudade!
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We hugged, we laughed,
we caught up [portuguese came back surprisingly fast and seemingly out of
nowhere!], we thanked the travel gods for making planes a real thing, we took a
juice, and we did the next thing on my "must do in rio" list, took
the teleferico.
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For those of you who are
reading (maybe it's only you, Diana ;) ) and don't remember, Ilton is the
amazing favela-born dreamer/social activist/fashion designer who inspires both
children in underprivileged areas of Rio and adult (?) twins currently living
in Brooklyn to make the world a better place through fashion and recycling
(reason 2139484392 why i love him).
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Back to the teleferico.
We rode around taking in views of the seemingly larger complexo, chills running
up my spine, smiling ear to ear with saudades of my last
experience here and again, a thankfulness to greater powers that make travel a
real-life super power. He also updated me on the recent going-ons in the
complexo, which unfortunately were not good news on the violence front, but I
think that is an entirely different post...
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Anyways, the fact that a
simple ride on a cable car with another human being had me so shaken up that I
literally felt euphoria/a call to action/chills/joy/sadness/lightbulbs/saudades all
at the same time got me thinking... how do these moments come about? where do
they come from? how can some situations get swallowed among millions of other
memories never to be uncovered again and others shake us to the core and
resound so deeply with us? and most importantly, what do we do with
them?
The other day, a wise
chilean-american-ex-berliner and another wise israeli-current-berliner started
talking to me about turning points. Similar to our brazilian word
of the day, something also quite difficult to define but if I take a stab at
it...
turning point\\ an experience or event that imprints
itself so greatly on you that it makes sure you will never ever be the same
again.
The funny thing about a turning
point is that even if it is something that happened during a short period of
time, maybe even in just a moment, you will carry it with you for a long, long
time and for the really good ones, forever. In case I didn't know it before,
upon returning to Rio two years later, it is clear that this is one of those
"forever" ones for me.
So I had a turning
point. great. got it. now what?!
I may very well go back
to BK, jump back into the busy day to day (heck, I already did it today, put on
my corporate fashion face working a super schmancy event with Rio's most
accomplished creatives....inspiring in its own right, but quite contrasting to
the day before if I may say so...DIGRESSING!) but need to
remember not to separate those turning points - those game changing moments,
the ones that made you who you are, the ones that still give you saudades up
your spine - from the day-to-day you. [note: i am speaking directly to
myself here]
The important thing is
what you do with these moments. I personally still don't have an answer, but
all I know is that I am grateful that this short corporate work trip has
converted itself into a soul touching reminder to act and do something. NOTE: This
'something' does not include only thinking back fondly on memories and merely
feeling these saudades. I must act on my saudades. In what
form it will take, I don't know but I will keep you posted.
So, full of saudades,
agua de coco and confusion, I give thanks - Thank you Ilton, Thank you
Complexo, Thank you Rio for reminding me that you shook me up.
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