I heard from folks in Italy this morning, who have put together a short presentation on autism. It’s in Italian, so if you don’t fully grasp the meaning, consider yourself forgiven.

The even more interesting part of all this is that the song they chose, “I Am Me”, was written by Italian children’s book author…the late Leo Lionni. The book was called Pezzetino, the story of a little jigsaw puzzle piece trying to find its place in the world. Isn’t it fascinating that the song would find it’s way back around the world to Italy, and to become part of a video about autism…a topic in many ways akin to the theme of the book?

A couple mentions of my music popping up here and there.

Judy Lombino has recorded one of my songs, “You Never Know”. It’s a musical prayer written about 10 years ago, and has previously been recorded by Angelina West and by The Grace Project. 

Judy is a cantor at Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas. When visiting her site, click on Launch Jukebox, and my song is the second selection there.

“One Love”, an award-winning documentary by Whitney Jackson (Sandpile Productions), features on of my solo piano pieces (”Sweetness & Light”) as part of the soundtrack.

The film documents a mission trip to Jamaica by a group of Purdue students, and takes a look beyond the public face of the country…finding grinding poverty, and children abandoned by parents who couldn’t afford to raise them. They know that the state will care for their children at no cost to them…but the students find that “caring for” is no replacement for parental love. My song begins just before the 25:00 mark in the video.