hope – Crisbie Coach

Searching for Sugar Man: The Timeless Lessons of Sixto Rodriguez

In the world of documentaries, few stories are as compelling and inspiring as “Searching for Sugar Man.” This Oscar-winning film, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, chronicles the fascinating journey of Sixto Rodriguez, a Detroit-based musician who, despite being largely unknown in his home country, became a cultural icon in South Africa. The documentary is more than just a tale of music—it’s a profound exploration of hope, resilience, and the transformative power of art.

The Enigmatic Story of Sixto Rodriguez

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sixto Rodriguez recorded two albums, “Cold Fact” and “Coming from Reality.” Despite their artistic brilliance, these records went unnoticed in the United States, and Rodriguez faded into obscurity. However, his music somehow made its way to South Africa, where it struck a chord with the anti-apartheid movement. In a land divided by racial injustice, Rodriguez’s songs became anthems of hope and resistance. Yet, while his music thrived on another continent, Rodriguez himself remained a mystery, with many assuming he had died in obscurity.

The documentary follows two South African fans, Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and Craig Bartholomew-Strydom, as they start on a quest to uncover the truth about Rodriguez. Their search leads to the astonishing discovery that not only was Rodriguez alive, but he was also unaware of his fame on the other side of the world. “Searching for Sugar Man” is the story of how one man’s music transcended borders, and how it changed lives forever.

Lessons We Can Learn from “Searching for Sugar Man”

Resilience in the Face of Failure. Rodriguez’s story is a testament to the power of resilience. Despite the commercial failure of his albums in the United States, Rodriguez never lost his passion for music or his belief in his own artistry. His persistence in pursuing his craft, even when the world seemed indifferent, is a powerful reminder that success is not always immediate or visible. It often requires patience, perseverance, and an unshakable belief in oneself.
The Unpredictable Nature of Success. Success, as Rodriguez’s story illustrates, is often unpredictable and can come unexpectedly. While his music was ignored in the United States, it resonated deeply in South Africa, where it became a symbol of resistance. This teaches us that impact and influence can be far-reaching, often beyond our immediate understanding. The key is to continue creating, sharing, and contributing, even if the results are not immediately apparent.
The Power of Art to Inspire Change. Art can inspire, uplift, and unite people across cultures and continents. Rodriguez’s music became the soundtrack to a movement, giving voice to those who were fighting against oppression. This underscores the importance of artistic expression as a tool for social change. Whether through music, writing, or visual arts, our creations have the potential to make a difference in the world.
The Value of Staying True to Yourself. Throughout his life, Rodriguez remained true to his values and his music, regardless of the commercial outcome. This authenticity is a powerful lesson in the importance of staying true to oneself. In a world that often prioritizes commercial success over artistic integrity, Rodriguez’s story is a reminder that true fulfillment comes from being genuine in our pursuits.

Embrace Your Passion

The story of Sixto Rodriguez and “Searching for Sugar Man” is not just a fascinating narrative; it’s a call to action. It encourages us to embrace our passions, pursue our dreams, and share our stories, no matter how unlikely success may seem. We are reminded that our contributions have value, even if they are not immediately recognized. The world is vast, and our impact may be greater than we ever realize.

As you reflect on Rodriguez’s journey, consider the passions you hold dear. Are you pursuing them with resilience and authenticity? Are you sharing your talents and stories with others? Let Rodriguez’s story inspire you to keep creating, keep striving, and keep believing in the power of your unique voice.

Have you watched “Searching for Sugar Man”? What lessons did you take away from Sixto Rodriguez’s incredible journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let’s continue to celebrate the power of resilience, creativity, and the enduring impact of art. If you haven’t seen the documentary yet, I highly recommend you watch it.

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Living the Day

During these challenging moments, I would like to share with you a paragraph taken from John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, which embodies strength and courage, and reflects a profound observation about the differences in perspective between men and women, especially in times of hardship and the passage of time.

Steinbeck is known for the realism of his novels and for the humor that enriches his descriptive narratives. Through his storytelling, he paints a vivid portrait of a vanishing America, yet his works remain infused with a resilient hope in humanity’s capacity for renewal and revival. He also captures the resilience of the human spirit and the different ways in which individuals perceive and respond to life’s challenges.

Our life ain’t over. It ain’t, and that’s the thing a woman knows.

I noticed that.

See man, he lives in a jerk.

Baby born, man dies, that’s a jerk.

Gets a farm and loses his farm, and that’s a jerk.

Woman, it’s all one flow, like a stream.

Little eddies, little waterfalls,

but the river, it goes right on.

Woman looks at it like that.

We ain’t gonna die out.

People are going on.

Changing a little maybe, but going right on.

Everything we do, seems to me, is aimed at going on.

It seems that way to me.

Even getting hungry, even being sick.

Some die, but the rest is tougher. Just try to live the day, just the day.

I think that this passage highlights the resilience and adaptability of humanity. Despite hardships, people persevere and keep moving forward. The narrator emphasizes the cyclical nature of life and the innate human drive to survive and endure, even in the face of hunger, sickness, and death.

What do you think about Steinbeck’s words?

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Why You Are the Words You Use

The words you use can change your reality. Language actually generates changes in your brains and changes your perception of the environment around you.

Language is linked to emotions. Your words are constantly sending messages to your brain. According to neuroscientists Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, negative words cause the increase of cortisol, the stress hormone. Therefore, adopting a negative attitude and using phrases like “I cannot do it”, “I will fail” or “it is impossible” could weaken your personal physical and mental health.

Nowadays, many techniques associated with changing the language to treat various psychological disorders are used. An example of this is the cognitive-behavioural therapy, which demonstrate that promoting positive thinking through the language used by the patient improves their mental state.

This therapy aims to replace patients’ negative views about themselves and their surroundings with more positive ones. The applied techniques have proven to be an effective treatment for disorders such as depression, phobias, addictions or anxiety, as the activity of the brain amygdala increases when you perceive a more prosperous future through positive words. On many occasions, these therapies have proven to be as effective as medicines.

Research has shown that the brain improves when you start using three to five positive expressions for each one negative. Language has a powerful ability to change your world. It affects you negatively when you use a poor, defeatist language but it also works the other way around, namely, when you use positive phrases they will help you change your perception of the world.

person doing thumbs up — Photo by Donald Tong on Pexels.com

Start adopting a series of simple but very effective techniques. For example, use “yet” instead of using only “not”. Saying “I cannot do it” is not the same as saying “I cannot do it yet“. “Yet” leaves the doors open, arouses hope, evokes motivation.

You should not use “but” or, at least, you should build your phrases differently. “But” does not have the same effect when you say, “You did a good job, but you gave it to me late” compared to when you say, “You gave it to me late, but you did a good job.”

Tenses also give you a great opportunity to change your emotions. Instead of using the conditional, try using the future. You change a hypothetical scenario for a true one. It is not the same as saying: “When I write a book, I would speak of happiness” rather than “When I write a book, I will speak of happiness”. Doubt lives in the conditional, certainty in the future.

At the same time, you should avoid words like failure, problem, impossible or guilt in your language and replace them by more inspiring words like challenge or responsibility. The latter not only pushes you to grow and open more doors, but also makes you interact better with others.

Words are not harmless. They can build or tear down walls. By changing your language, you will improve your image, as language is a way to reach others. Remember that the words you use also improve the environment around you.

What do you think about the language you use with others?

key with trinket in shabby door — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

How to Overcome Difficulties with the Ganbatte

The Japanese people have an incredible ability to recover from catastrophes of any kind. After World War II that left the country in ruins, in just thirty years Japan became the second largest economy in the world, becoming leaders in the electronics sector in the eighties and nineties. How could the Japanese economic miracle happen? The answer has to do with an expression that we should use too: “ganbatte” which means “try your best”.

Here lies one of the differences between the fragility of the Western culture and the resilience of Japanese culture: how they deal with crisis’ situations.

In Japan, when they have to take an exam, they say “Ganbatte kudasai“, which is the best way to tell others to do their best. In this case, there is no external factor on which the outcome of your exam depends on. According to the Japanese, if you try your best, you will get a result, which even if not the best ever, it will be the best for you, because it represents your maximum effort.

Another Japanese saying, also very useful to all of us, is: “if you want to warm a rock, sit over it for a hundred years”, which means that to overcome great difficulties you need to be patient. However, this doesn’t mean sitting down and waiting for circumstances to change, it means actually working to create new situations and opportunities.

The “ganbatte” is present in the individual and collective activities of the Japanese, and it is very much linked to the Ikigai, that is simply the priority around which everything else (often unconsciously) turns.

In 1995, when the disastrous earthquake happened in Kobe causing enormous damages, the slogan that circulated in Japan was: Ganbaro Kobe. The meaning of the message was: strength and courage from all of us; united and with efforts we will get out of this situation.

Later on, in 2011, on the occasion of another great earthquake that caused the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, the slogan that encouraged all Japanese was: Ganbaru Nippon! This encouraged all Japanese to join in the collective effort to help all those involved in the catastrophe. A collective effort was required, and this spirit manifested heroically when retired workers from the nuclear power plant, volunteered to control it. The reason presented by those people was that it was better for the radiation to affect people who had already lived a good part of their lives rather than young people with a future ahead.

A good lesson for all of us in these difficult times. We could try to do as the Japanese do by following these four practical tips.

Do and not complain. Don’t complain with your arms crossed: do something. Value your actions, even if they seem of little importance to you, in reality everything you do is important. As the Kaizen philosophy says, modest but continuous progress ends up in a great transformation.
Hope instead of despair. An attitude of hope focused on day after day rather than on “when this will end” helps to keep morale high.
Don’t waste energy. Don’t venture into endless arguments, which get you nowhere. It is necessary to keep all your strengths (mental and physical) to keep moving forward.
Seek the company of enthusiastic people. We are friends by affinity. This does not, however, exclude that we can surround ourselves with people with a ganbatte spirit, who strive to improve rather than seeing only the negative side.

Do you think ganbatte can help you with facing difficult situations?

Ode to the First Day of the Year – a Poem By Pablo Neruda

Is there a better way to kick off the new year with such a beautiful poem full of hope?

We identify it
as if
it were
a wooden horse
different from
all horses.
We adorn
its forehead
with a ribbon,
we hang
on its neck colourful rattles,
and at midnight
we get ready to receive it
as if it were
an explorer descending from a star.

The way bread resembles
yesterday’s bread,
a ring all rings:
the days
blink
clearly, jingling, fleetingly,
and lie down in the dark night.

I see the last
day
of this
year
on a train, toward the rains
of a distant purple archipelago,
and the man
on the machine,
complicated like a clock from heaven,
lowering his eyes
to the infinite
ruler of the rails,
to the shining handles,
to the nimble bonds of fire.

Of conductor of trains
accelerating
toward the black
stations of the night,
this end
of the year,
without wife or children,
is it not the same for the one gone, the one coming?
From the roads
and workshops,
the first day, the first dawn
of the starting year,
has the same rusty
colour as the iron train:
and people along the way
greet it,
cows, villages,
the vapour of the first light of day,
without knowing
it is
the year’s door,
a day
heralded
by bells,
adorned with plumes and carnations.

The earth
does not
know it:
it will receive
that golden
day, gray, heavenly,
it will extend it over hills,
it will wet it with
arrows
of translucent
rain,
and then
it will curl it
in a tube,
will store it in the shadows.
It is thus, but
a small
door of hope,
new year’s day,
although you are
like the bread
of all breads,
we will live you in a different way,
we will eat you, flower you,
wait for you.
We will place you
like a cake
in our lives,
we will light you
like candelabra,
we will drink you
as if
you were a topaz.
New
Year’s
Day,
electric day, fresh,
all the leaves
emerge green
from
the trunk of time.

Crown us
with
water,
with open
jasmine,
with all the aromas
deployed,
yes,
even though
you’re
only
a day,
a poor
human day,
your halo
beats
over so many
tired
hearts,
and you are,
oh new
day,
oh forthcoming cloud,
bread unseen before,
permanent
tower!

P A B L O N E R U D A
translated by Ilan Stavans on A Longhouse Publisher