Why am I doing this?

An unexpected thank you

“Thank you for doing this for the community” he told me referring to my blog posts. To be honest I didn’t know how to react. All this started like a joke. I started by posting small texts on Facebook for my friends and as the discussions led to new texts and the new texts led to more discussions and longer texts, at some point, it evolved into this blog. So, I did not start all this for the community. I didn’t actually care about the community. I only cared about my friends and keeping in touch with them during COVID. I never really thought I was contributing something to a community.

OK. Maybe at some point, some of my posts had an effect on the Frankfurt community but that wasn’t my purpose. You see… I consider myself an average dancer who is quite invisible in the high levels of the community. I never really thought milongas organisers would read and consider my posts. Actually, I was always kind of intimidated by the idea. I wrote posts complaining about events and organisers and I was afraid that it would backfire if they discovered it. But it happened. People from the community saw what I wrote, came back to me with curiosity and when I explained my viewpoint things started to change.

But as I said. I did not start all this for the community. This was and still is not my agenda. I started to keep in touch with friends and to offload my personal complaints, experiences and opinions. It was and still is something like a journal, but it is open to everyone. Whatever happens to the community or communities is just an unintended consequence. Good or bad… Time will show.

The purpose

I saw an interesting podcast the other day with Simon Sinek and I was triggered by the idea that people stay in jobs when they feel they serve a purpose. When at the end of the day they see the bigger result and can say… “I have put my part in this”. For the last six years, I have worked on a project that I can now see as a complete product and I can say… “Yes… I made a small part of this”. It is indeed fulfilling and rewarding.

So how does this apply to Goodnight Tango? If my purpose was to keep in touch with friends and offload my experiences, complaints, opinions, etc., then that purpose is definitely fulfilled. I can say that the blog helped build connections with people in my two communities that I would otherwise not have. It helped me keep in touch with old friends but it also helped me find a lot more new ones. People who I never met and bumped into an article and sent me a comment, a message etc. People who I had chats with and felt like I knew for a long time.

So what now? If the purpose of this blog is fulfilled. If I managed to keep in contact during COVID, and pressed all or most of my opinions is there something more? Should I continue writing? This is the question I have been struggling with for the last couple of weeks as the year is nearing its end. Should I continue in the next year? What should I write about? Why? It feels like I am repeating myself lately.

Rediscovering the purpose

And then the phrase came back to me “Thank you for doing THIS for the community”. So I had to figure out what is this “THIS”. What is it that I am doing for the community? What kind of value do I offer? I am no teacher, I am no organiser, I am not DJing (at least not yet 😉 ), I am just a simple dancer going to local milongas and some (very limited) events. What the hell is the value that I offer? And then it dawned on me.

In one of the discussions in the community some time ago, a friend commented that we don’t discuss issues that I write about in the posts, in person in the milonga and we should. We mostly discuss them online in groups and forums like the community I started. (Which by the way I did not start for this reason).

Hmmm… is this my value? Is this what I am? A facilitator? A moderator? A discussions’ initiator!? Maybe… Maybe I am something like that… the person who sits at the table… sets the question… follows up with more questions so that we can have some fruitful discussion. And what is the fruit of the discussion? The discussion IS the fruit. You see… When you have an opinion and someone else has a different one and you exchange them you at least (in a healthy discussion) see each other’s viewpoint. You can see where they come from. It doesn’t mean you will agree. As I wrote again… sometimes we need to agree to disagree. But even this is helpful. It brings us closer.

Now the thing is that we mostly do these conversations online. We don’t really start such conversations in person in a milonga or elsewhere. We may be hesitant to dive into deep topics right from the get-go and it makes sense. People need time to think, process and analyse issues when they are deep. It is not easy to just answer in 5 seconds. This is where the new part of the site comes into play.

If you want to spark such deep discussions in person let’s do that without speaking! Let’s start them by… wearing them! Yes. In the first days of 2025, you will find a new section on the site. An E-shop with t-shirts and other products designed to either make a statement or ask a question that will spark conversations. For starters, there will be a limited set of designs but trust me… there will be more coming out in the future.

If you are curious about the people you dance with, if you care to know more about how they see certain elements of the dance and if you want to spark some interesting discussions in the milonga… you can buy your design and at the same time also support the blog. As I said. I don’t offer any other value and I don’t plan to sell you any kind of event or class here. I don’t aspire to become a tango teacher or organiser at any point in time. I prefer this role of the guy who just sits back observes and challenges your thinking (as much as I do mine)

The added benefit

Designing T-shirts with statements and questions from the blog also has an additional benefit for me as well as you. Many of my texts were written a while ago. As I said, lately, I don’t have much to write about without feeling like repeating myself. Digging back to old posts, finding the key point, and designing something related is an opportunity to resurface some of my favourite texts and reignite some discussions. Many of you have discovered the blog lately. Just the last few months. So, I guess it’s nice if I curate you through some of the older posts and gather some fresh comments. After all, if you haven’t noticed so far,  a big part of what I write is inspired by what you comment and the exchanges that we have. So it will help in discovering new topics as well.

Tonight’s Goodnight Tango

Tonight’s Goodnight Tango is a prompt. A prompt to chat. To discuss. Like the new adventure, I set for… to enable more chats off the dancefloor. It also comes from the unique voice of Ignacio much like the unique way to spark conversations through interesting t-shirts.

How about you? What topics would you like to ask your partners about and never dared because they are quite deep… because they don’t fit in a chat between songs. Which posts were the most inspiring for you? Would you wear such a T-shirt in a milonga? Let me know.

Do you have something to say on the topic?

^{Join the group}

^{PM me on messenger}

^{Drop me an email}

Did you like the post? Spread the word…