A Tribute to Mister Rotary Lou Mello
In the ever-transmogrifying world of social media, it takes a village to spread the word about anything. My blog lives because of its readers, and I appreciate every one of you. But, for the remainder of this week, I am going to thank some special people: my advocates, people who go beyond reading my blog and telling me how much they enjoy it. They share it with their friends and spread the word about it whenever and wherever they can. That I never asked any of them to be my advocate is even more humbling for me.
A super human story is the only explanation for Lou Mello. The X-Men really do exist, perhaps. Or, Dr. Who and James Bond somehow reproduced, through a cocktail of Meester Bond’s many hook-ups, and he is their off-spring. Maybe Superman impregnated Wonder Woman, and Lou is the result.
When one knows Lou, none of these backstories seems far-fetched. In fact, any one of them is probable.
I know this much: Lou doesn’t do anything to earn attention or praise. A wordy soliloquy citing how much his friendship means to me will only make him uncomfortable and cause him to comment about the Golden Rule in an “aw-shucks, stop-talking-about-me-this-instant” posture. I will simply state that if I can BE Lou Mello when I grow up, I will be one of the most remarkable people who ever lived and breathed.
Lou cares about more than reading blogs, friending most of my friends on Facebook (they now know me as “Lou’s friend”) and supporting others in their quests. My mother likes him. My FATHER even knows about Lou, and he cannot turn on a computer. Lou is a man who makes an impression by enthusiastically giving the spotlight to anyone but himself.
Allow me to shine the light on Lou.
He’s mad about Ohio State University. Anyone who gets up at 3am to drive twelve-plus hours to watch people throw a pig skin around a football field has to be mad.
Lou worships his wife, the lovely Miss TK. He gets a look in his eye when he sees her. Lou had what he likes to call a “practice marriage.” That he knows how to embrace and celebrate the gift of a soul mate – and that he fetes her with abandon – is a trait I appreciate in Lou because I see it in myself.
Rotary International is yet another of Lou’s passions. His Rotary District is one of the biggest in the world by number of clubs, and the leadership is a coveted role. When Lou applied, almost everyone else stood aside to try another year. EVERYBODY said Lou deserved it. I always look for Lou Dust to precede him into the room. It’s a super hero accessory that has to exist. He walks into a place, smiles, starts asking about the other person, and somehow trots away with that person agreeing – EVEN VOLUNTEERING WITH ENTHUSIASM – to give obscene amounts of time to Rotary.
Almost every day of every week of every month of every year, Lou shares my blog posts with his friends and connections in multiple platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Google+. We attend Rotary District events, and he assaults people to patronize my blog. When I picked him as a reader for the third draft of my book, he did it in a day, relieving me of some of the pressure of wondering when – IF – anyone would get around to it. I asked several people to send private e-mail messages to our non-mutual friends inviting them to like my author page on Facebook. Lou was one of the only people who actually did it, and in the usual ‘Lou’ way: coercing four times the number of people I expected into clicking “like.”
I couldn’t ask for a better friend and advocate: to emulate, to revere and to treasure. If super heroes do exist, Lou Mello is the only Super Friend for me.
Lou is a fantastic person, and a great friend – not only to you but to the community. I am really sorry I had to miss his celebratory Cootchie party last night. I was looking firward to giving Super Lou a big wet kiss. (I admit that I would have washed my mouth out afterwards. And maybe washed it out with tequila beforehand.)
Lou’s support for his friends and causes, his tireless energy, and his ability to never sleep are amazing. How does the Lovely Ms TK put up with him?
I wish I could have been there. Sometimes I, and my choices, just suck. Sorry.
But congratulations Lou!
I’m sure he’ll forgive you.
Yes, but you won’t. And that is what hurts.
Forgiveness is easy.
Go Lou! Hope the party was a SMASH!
The paella was awesome. MTM did a seafood one and a vegetarian one.
SELFLESS
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: unselfish
Synonyms: Lou Mello
Yes??
Anyone who has such a friend is fortunate beyond measure.
I am very fortunate to be friends with both Lou and the lovely Miss TK.
Lou is the force of nature. and force for good and love and all that’s right. knowing him through knowing you is a great gift. I’m glad you put spotlight on Lou. He deserves it.
This is a repost, because I was pretty done in last night. I hope you and Bill are feeling much better today.
I’m much better, Bill, not so much. Though, I’m hoping he’ll turn around today.
Huzzah!
I’m not of the school of thought that an “electronic village” or social media matters one iota.
I am of the school of thought that humans matter. They matter as much as they did before Ben Franklin discovered electricity.
I think, sometimes, we forget that.
Electronic media only allows us more ways to express ourselves. Important, true, but not the human bottom line.
Some of the people who are now my closest friends came from social media, because I doubt I would’ve met them otherwise. They are good humans.
James Taylor and “You’ve Got a Friend” is strumming through my head, as I read and re-read your tribute to Lou. A wonderful tribute, Andra, and a wonderful friend. Congratulations to Lou!
He and Miss TK should be in San Diego by now. He is spending a week with incoming Rotary District Governors from all over the world.
Lou is truly superhuman. His tireless work in the real world causes me to wonder constantly how he keeps up his presence in the virtual one. We were very sorry to miss Lou’s clearly memorable bash. An unexpected turn of events turned us all on our heads here for 24 hours or so. One day we hope to meet him in person, but for now all we can do is agree wholeheartedly with you, and wish him and the beautiful Miss TK a wonderful time stretching ahead of them.
Kate, I hope all is well over there, especially with both of your parents.
Lou will be in Lisbon toward the end of June at the Rotary International Convention. We may go as well. You should get a cheap flight and come on over.
What a lovely way to say “thank you” to a friend, Andra. Love sounds like a particularly great guy! I am sure the party was delightful…and the paella a hit!
He’s now just down the coast from you.
I couldn’t agree with you more about Lou, Andra. We had a lovely time, paella perfect and so was the company, thanks!
It was great to see you and Mike, and to see Mike back to normal. Or seemingly so. I know it’s a long road.
Thank you for the introduction to Lou. I’ve grown to “know” him through his comments in the blog and must say that I look forward to reading his comments, as well as all the other comments, to every single blog you do. You draw lovely people to you Andra. It’s been so nice getting to know you Lou…and all the rest of you commenters.
We are all lucky to know Lou. I hope you get to meet him someday, Lori.
Everyone needs at least one Superfriend… sounds like you got a good one!
I do.