A Troubadour Part 3: Finale.

Jesper, sit and have some wine. These are desperate times. There are no blacksmiths left in our land, our women are defiant and the new pigeon law… oh don’t get me started on those pigeons. With your wit and wise knowledge, craft me some song so I may be inspired.

Patron, I am honored to be in your service. I know all about the pigeons. Fear not your Highness, this is a revolution but none like any you’ve known before. The lands are shrinking and everything is now near, not far. The future is bright like ember in the ashes.

How do you figure, Jesper? The lands are shrinking? What are you saying? Are the gardens shrinking too? This sounds like gloom and doom.

Patron, it’s all about the pigeons. Faster than the wind, they cross mountains and streams, pigeons are the future! Why send a horse when you can send a pigeon? Our people are sharing songs, not on the square but far across the land. Our land has become like a giant virtual square, Patron. It’s pigeon power!

Jesper, you are like an agile swordsman with your wit and you have charm to boot. Bring me pigeons and show me how to use them. We will have conquest in the clouds!

But Patron, if you please, this is not a time for ignorance, mockery or conquest. For your sake, and that of our sons and daughters in all the lands, this is a time for listening and understanding, for sharing of our labors and our gardens. I will show you the ways.

Jesper, I should have your head, but your wit is seductive. You will have an empty canvas. Sing your songs and get me some pigeons and we will hash it out.

Imagine a troubadour today, up in northern Sweden with a fast Internet connection. He would find that the search for patrons is very competitive and a horse and a flute are not really used that often anymore.

Fortunately, for a man of invention, there is always reinvention. He adapts, rebrands his skills, embraces multiple media and finds novel ways of telling stories. As a craftsman of ideas, his aim is to understand culture, people and things. He makes up stories for various purposes. He is a message designer.

So, now that I got a good angle on my CV it’s time to kill the troubadour metaphor. Time to start blogging about serious topics (yeah, right!) on my journey into International Development.

And like Pablo Picasso once said: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

Other great stuff Picasso said:

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

“What one does is what counts.
Not what one had the intention of doing.”

“Others have seen what is and asked why.
I have seen what could be and asked why not”

“The meaning of life is to find your gift,
the purpose of life is to give it away.”