I’ve said it before, but one of the delights of blogging for me – and one of the things that keeps me going – is the interaction with others that it gives us. There are a number who regularly comment on my posts, and whose posts I visit and comment on too. I’ve never met any of them in ‘real life,’ or even spoken on the phone or by one of the messaging apps, but they feel like friends, like we’re in a community together. And sometimes we get a kind of chat going in the comments too, which I always enjoy.

That happened recently, when Yvette  picked up on a comment from Pete on my annual review post, 2020 Hindsight. They are both regular and very welcome followers, likers and commenters, and their blogs are both very enjoyable too – I recommend them, if you aren’t already following them. One of the delights of Yvette’s comments is that she seems to have switched on ‘Swahili’ as the default option for her spellcheck, as you’ll see. Actually, I’m probably being very unfair to her in saying that, as I’m pretty sure that her typos are due more to the speed with which her mind works than any lack of linguistic knowledge! The important thing is that her words are fun, and I’m always pleased to see them. But in the process we seem to have agreed on her inventing a new word.

This is what she said in response to Pete’s comment:

“Hey Pete and Clive – wanted to piggy back in what Pete said about clives msucucao knowledge – because yes it is a strength of his
But I find the real charm of his music posts is that very special Clive-style refleting that offers his personal connection to the music (if any) and other tidbits with the music info – but never verbose and with such flow.
It really is a Clive-style kind of unique approach to writing about music.
Okay – wishing you both a great day”

See what I mean? Lovely words, “refleting” the fact that they were written by a lovely person, but a wonderful typo in there too. I know she has a good sense of humour so in my reply I queried what ‘msucucao’ was:

“Thank you so much, Yvette, that is so kind of you. As I said to Pete recently, I try to put in chart positions and any history I come across to give some context, and if I have a story to tell and can talk about myself so much the better!

Btw what’s msucucao? It sounds like musical chocolate!”

I wasn’t disappointed: she picked up on my gentle teasing and came back with this:

“Oh Clive – I think we have a new word on our hands –
msucucao
Was supposed to be “musical”
It does sound like music chocolate or some special
Musical drink!
maybe it can be the term for the Clive-style kf music exploring –
msucucao: the term for exploring music according to genre, historical context and occasional statistics while also adding the author’s personal connection to the music (if any). msucucao, where the root “msuc” is derived from music and the cucaco “from curating a blog post at take it easy blog with Clive”
How is that?”

Of course, we both knew all along what Yvette had intended to write, but the idea of musical chocolate did rather appeal to me. After all, I have an addiction to both, so what could be more natural for me? They both bring pleasure to my life and to many others. Both can be sweet and smooth, or dark and a little bitter, so I think the comparison is a good one, and they deserve to be linked. It isn’t exactly unknown for me to switch on some music and enjoy it with a bit of chocolate, either!

This exchange got me thinking, though. I have posted a lot of music on here, especially since last March when I started Tuesday Tunes, and even more so when I ran my Advent Calendar for the first twenty five days of December. It got me looking back over previous posts to see how I might have changed tack, and actually, I haven’t – a good dollop of music has always been here. At the risk of repeating myself, I began this blog to talk about mental health, and I still do – there will be a post on that again soon. But music has an important place in all our lives: I can’t imagine mine without it. It is recognised as a form of treatment for mental health issues: in the NHS Trust for which I worked, the music therapy sessions were a wonderful way of helping people, both individually and collectively. I was once given the honour of being allowed to sit in on a session, and found it very inspiring. So do please keep in mind that when I’m sharing music in a post there is a meaning for me in why I’m doing so, over and above hoping that I’m giving you a pleasurable reading, listening and viewing experience.

I have debated with myself a lot recently about whether I should reduce the amount and frequency of the music I share – usually after a Tuesday Tunes post hasn’t done as well as others in terms of likes and comments(!) – but have come to the conclusion that this what I do, and everyone is perfectly free to read or not. I’d never compel anyone to read my posts, even if I could find a way to do that. It might improve my stats, but I always come back to something I told myself very early on in my blogging days: if my words bring pleasure, enjoyment or comfort to even just one person, then that makes the post worthwhile. I’ve long since accepted that I’m never going to be one of those bloggers who attracts a massive following and huge numbers of ‘likes’ for every post, but I’m happy in my little niche. Shouldn’t that be the case for all of us? If not, why are you doing this? There are many blogs I follow which all share their writers’ happiness in what they do – I wouldn’t read them if I felt the author wasn’t engaged in what they were doing. Hopefully, my engagement with what I’m doing is clear – if not, I can’t be doing this very well!

Now I’m off to ‘explore music according to genre, historical context and occasional statistics while also adding the author’s personal connection to the music (if any)’ in preparation for my next venture into Tuesday Tunes. I’ve chosen the theme, but it is proving difficult to come up with some good musical choices to match it – hopefully I’ll get there in time, for my next piece of msucucao. And who knows, we might invent another new word while we’re at it.

Until then, I wish you well and, as ever, thank you for reading and being a part of my community. I’ll be reading quite a few posts before then, too.