“All the harbingers of collapse are visible: crumbling infrastructure; chronic underemployment and unemployment; the indiscriminate use of lethal force by police; political paralysis and stagnation; an economy built on the scaffolding of debt; nihilistic mass shootings in schools, universities, workplaces, malls, concert venues and movie theaters; opioid overdoses that kill some 64,000 people a year; an epidemic of suicides; unsustainable military expansion; gambling as a desperate tool of economic development and government revenue; the capture of power by a tiny, corrupt clique; censorship; the physical diminishing of public institutions ranging from schools and libraries to courts and medical facilities; the incessant bombardment by electronic hallucinations to divert us from the depressing sight that has become America and keep us trapped in illusions. We suffer the usual pathologies of impending death. I would be happy to be wrong. But I have seen this before. I know the warning signs. All I can say is get ready.”
May 26th 2003 Aron Ralston was hiking, a boulder fell on his right hand. He waited four days, then amputated his arm with a pocket knife.
On New Year’s Eve, a woman was bungee jumping in Zimbabwe. The cord broke, she then fell into a river and had to swim back to land in crocodile infested waters with a broken collarbone.
Claire Champlin was smashed in the face by a five pound watermelon being propelled by a slingshot.
Matthew Brobst was hit by a javelin.
David Striegl was punched in the mouth. By a kangaroo.
The most amazing part about these stories is when asked about the experience they all smiled, shrugged, and said “I guess things could have been worse.”
So go ahead.
Tell me that you’re having a bad day.
Tell me about the traffic. Tell me about your boss. Tell me about the job you’ve been trying to quit for the past four years. Tell me the morning is just a town house burning to the ground and the snooze button is a fire extinguisher. Tell me the alarm clock stole the keys to your smile, drove it into 7:00 AM, and the crash totaled your happiness.
Tell me! Tell me!
Tell me, how blessed are we to have tragedies so small it can fit on the tips of our tongues?
You see, when Evan lost his legs he was speechless. When my cousin was assaulted, she didn’t speak for forty eight hours. When my uncle was murdered, we had to send out a search party to find my father’s voice.
Most people have no idea that tragedy and silence have the exact same address.
When your day is a museum of disappointments hanging from events that were outside of your control, when you find yourself flailing in an ocean of “Why is this happening to me?”, when it feels like your guardian angel put in his two week notice two months ago and just decided not to tell you, when it feels like God is just a babysitter that’s always on the phone, when you get punched in the esophagus by a fistful of life, remember that every year two million people die of dehydration so it doesn’t matter if the glass is half full or half empty, there’s water in the cup.
Drink it, and stop complaining.
Muscle is created by repeatedly lifting things that have been designed to weigh us down. So when your shoulders feel heavy, stand up straight and lift your chin – call it exercise. When the world crumbles around you, you have to look at the wreckage and then build a new one out of the pieces that are still here.
Remember, you are still here.
The human heart beats approximately four thousand times per hour.
Each pulse, each throb, each palpitation is a trophy engraved with the words “You are still alive”.
Gracias por ser un artista verdadero, un creador, imaginativo y original. Gracias por ayudar a abrir cabezas con una lyrica y unas rimas extraordinarias, cabronisimas, anormales. Gracias por ayudarme a divertirme, y a entender que en esta vida hay que aprender de ella y tambien disfrutarla y celebrala. Gracias por enseñarme tanto. Me saco el sombrero por personas como tu. Sos Un soldado mental, un sensei le la cabeza, un verdadero jedi de los pensamientos. Y tu boca y tu palabra van cortando como una espada por el mundo a todas las malas vibras, los malos pensamientos, las pendejadas y porquerias que se le enfrentan por su camino. Gracias por ser Sudamericano y gracias por ser humano. Gracias por representar tan orgullosamente a Puerto Rico y por nunca olvidarte de donde sos. Gracias Por que aunque te hicieras rico por tu talento no cambiaste como persona. Gracias por no marearte con los aplausos y la lujuriay y por nuna olvidarte de lo que verdaderamente importa en esta vida. Gracias Por seguir dandole como una bestia. La verdad que hoy en dia, rapeando, hay solo un caballo en el establo. A seguir luchando y trabajando que “el futuro es nuestro”. Un abrazo compañero y destapo una bien helada y brindo por ti, salud! y por muchos años mas de exploracion creativa.
“Nunca es tarde para nada
La mañana esta esperando
Si te perdiste el tren puedes llegar caminando
Las oportunidades ahi esta
Pero son como las olas, llegan y se van
Y aunque seamos de colores diferentes
Todos comemos con la boca y masticamos con los dientes
Hay que ser buena gente y agradecido
Y proteger el arbol para que no se caiga el nido.
Y ojala que nada te duela,
Pero si te duele que te sirva de escuela.
Y ojala que te enamores muchas veces
Porque con un beso lo malo desaparece.”
-Residente
“Asi que quitense la corona,
las redes sociales no determinan el calibre de una persona.
Dices que fui regueaton.
Di también que fui tango, bossa nova, cumbia, bazucada, mambo.
La fusion es el concepto.
Con Calle 13 les empuje la mitad y ahora con Residente les empujo el resto.
No es el genero musical si no el artista
Tirale un dembow a Ruben Blades para que vean como parte la pista.
Rapeando soy un deportista, practico tollos días
Con una rima hago que llores y que después te rías.“
Tomaría tu sonrisa y me la injertaría directo en mis venas, para sentirte adentro,fluyendo dentro de mi.
Se me hace imposible esconder o negar que me gustas por que sin decir nada se me adelantan los labios y me delata la sonrisa,
y aunque la sonrisa es mía, el motivo eres tu.
Me gusta como existes. Me encanta tu sonrisa, tu pelo, tu cuerpo abrazado en el mío.
Me encantan tus lunares y tus pecas, esas pequeñas constelaciones que iluminan tu cuerpo, ayudándome a poder recorrerlo con las caricias de mis manos y de mis labios.
Me encanta el cafe ese de tus ojos, que despiertan y adormecen y me encanta la manera en que ellos me miran.Cuando tus ojos se fijan en mi, me derriten como un hielo al sol y me desarman como si fuera una técnica de judo. Pero paradójicamente, al mismo tiempo dan luz y me alegran la vida.
En ti tienes algo especial, esa chispa que me enciende estalla mi corazón. Sos todo un terremoto de mujer. Solo estando a mi lado me mueves el piso.
Por ti me convertiría en un gordito y asi comerte a besos, miles y miles de besos. Bebería todo los días de tu fuente, sin nunca poder saciar esta sed que tengo de ti.
Puedo admitir sin pena y sin temor, que soy un adicto a tu droga flaca y quiero mas….
……quiero siempre mas.
-Otro admirador del Fan Club
La Flaca
Who needs drugs when your smile exists?
But if I could choose, that would be my drug.
I would take your smile and inject it directly into my veins, then I could feel you inside, flowing through me.
It’s impossible to hide or deny that I like you because without even saying anything, my lips get ahead of me and my smile gives me away,
And even though the smile is mine, the reason is you.
I like how you exist. I like your smile, your hair, your body hugging mine.
I love your freckles, those little tiny constellations that highlight your body, helping me to travel throughout it with the caressing of my hands and lips.
I like the coffee of your eyes, that dull and awaken and I love the way they look at me. When they fall upon me they melt me like ice in the sun and disarm me like they were some sort of judo technique. But Paradoxically, they also give me light and bring joy to my life.
I’m you is something special, that spark that ignites me and burst into flames inside my heart. You make my ground shake just by being around me, a real earthquake of a woman.
For you I would become a fatty, and that way I could eat you up in kisses, thousands and thousands of kisses. I would drink from your fountain everyday, without ever quenching this thirst I have for you.
I can admit, without shame or fear, that I am addicted to your drug Flaca and I want more……
In the far east they have something that’s call the Chinese bamboo tree. The Chinese bamboo tree takes five years to grow. They have to water and fertilize the ground where it is every day, and it doesn’t break through the ground until the fifth year. But once it breaks through the ground, within five weeks it grows 90 feet tall.
Now the question is does it grow 90 feet tall in five weeks, or five years?The answer is obvious. It grows 90 feet tall in five years. Because at any time, had that person stopped watering and nurturing and fertilizing that dream, that bamboo tree would’ve died in the ground.
And I can see people coming out talking to a guy out there watering and fertilizing the ground that’s not showing anything. “Hey, what’cha doing? You’ve been out here a long time, man. And the conversation in the neighbourhood is, you’re growing a Chinese bamboo tree. Is that right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Well, even Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder can see, ain’t nothing showing. So how long you been working on this? How long have you been working on your dream, and you have nothing to show… This is all you’ve got to show?” People gonna do that to you. And some people, ladies and gentlemen, they stop. Because they don’t see instant results. It doesn’t happen quickly. They stop. Oh, no, no, no, no. You got to keep on watering your dreams.
That is not gonna happen as quickly as you want it to happen. Lot of things gonna happen that will catch you off guard. And so therefore, you’ve got to deal with and handle it as it comes. And not only that, but that faith and patience drives you into action. You’ve got to keep moving. And keep plugging away.
During those hard times, when you don’t know how you’re gonna make payroll. During those times when you fail and things didn’t work out. They were nowhere to be found. But you know what I discovered? When you’re working at your dream, somebody said, the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. Oh, it’s sweet, to you. It’s good to you.
Why? See, when it’s hard and there’s a struggle, see what you become in the process is more important than the dream. That’s far more important. The kind of person you become. The character that you build. The courage that you develop. The faith that you’re manifesting. Oh, it’s something that, you get up in the morning, you look yourself in the mirror, you’re a different kind of person. You walk with a different kind of spirit.
People know that you know what Life is. That you have embraced Life. You knew it was hard. But you did it hard.
GO HARD.
-Les Brown
(Español)
En el lejano Oriente tienen algo llamado el árbol de bambú. El árbol de bambú se toma cinco años en crecer. Tienen que regar e abonar el suelo donde se encuentra todos los días, y no sale de la tierra hasta el quinto año. Pero una ves que sale a la superficie, crece 28 metros en nueve semanas.
Ahora la pregunta es, crece 28 metros en nueve semanas o en cinco años? La respuesta es obvia. Crece 28 metros en cinco años. Por que si en cualquier momento esa persona hubiera dejado de regar y abonar ese sueño, el árbol de bambú hubiese muerto bajo el suelo.
Y puedo ver a la gente llendo a hablar con el hombre regando y abonando un suelo que no muestra nada. “Hola, que haces? Llevas mucho tiempo aquí afuera hombre. Los comentarios del barrio dicen que están creciendo un Arbol Chino de bambu, es verdad?
“Si, es verdad”
“Pues hasta Ray Charles y Stevie Wonder pueden ver que ahi no hay nada. Hace cuanto tiempo que trabajas en esto? Cuanto tiempo llevas cultivando tu sueño y no tienes nada para mostrar…. esto todo lo que tienes?”
Hay gente que te va a hacer esto. Y hay personas, damas y caballeros, que al escuchar esto abandonan sus esfuerzos por que no ven resultados instantáneos. Como no sucede rápido, paran. Pero oh, no, no, no, no. Tienes que seguir regando tus sueños.
No va a suceder tan rápido como tu lo quieres. Muchas cosas pasaran que te van a agarrar desprevenido. Y entonces, tu tienes que hacerles de frente y manejarlas como van llegando. Y no solo eso, la fe y la paciencia te llevan a entrar en acción. Tienes que seguir hacia adelante y continuar con tus esfuerzos.
Durante esos tiempos dificiles, cuando no sabes como vas a llegar a pagar las cuentas. Durante esos tiempos cuando fallas y las cosas no funcionan, no es facil encontrar fe y paciencia. Pero sabes lo que es descubierto? Cuando estas trabajando en tu sueños, lo mas difícil que es la batalla, lo mas dulce la victoria. Oh es dulce para ti y es bueno para ti.
Por que? Ve, cuando las cosas son difíciles y hay un lucha, en que te conviertes durante el proceso es mas importante que tus sueños. Mucho mas importante. El tipo de persona en la cual te conviertes. El carácter que desarrollas. El coraje que desarrollas. La fe que manifiestas. Eso es algo que cuando te levantas por la mañana y te ves en el espejo, ves un tipo de persona diferente. Caminas con otro tipo de espíritu.
La gente sabe que tu sabes de que se trata la Vida. Que tu haz abrazado a la vida. Sabias que iba a ser difícil. Pero lo hiciste igual. Ponte firme y ve por tus sueños.
“Find balance in your life. Work hard but don’t let work take over your life, you will lose yourself. Love, but love for the right reasons. Life is too short for anything mediocre. Know who you are and know that you are worthy of reaching your dreams and that it is never too late to start creating that life you have always dreamed of. Do not compare yourself to others, that’s just deadly. No two souls are the same. You are your own person, you are beautiful and you are unique. Put your trust in the universe. Some things are just meant to happen, and some are not. Let go of whatever is stealing your happiness, it’s hard but it is worth it. Embrace change. Embrace life. Everything happens for a reason, sometimes you just need to breathe, trust and let go.”
—Charlotte Freeman
“Encuentra balance en tu vida. Trabaja duro pero no dejes que el trabajo consuma tu vida, te perderas de esa manera. Ama, pero ama por las razones correctas. La vida es muy corta para cosas mediocres. Sabe quien eres y que sos capas de lograr tus sueños y que nunca es tarde para empezar a crear esa vida de la cual siempre soñaste. No te compares con otros, eso es mortal. No hay dos almas que sean iguales. Tu eres tu propia persona, eres hermosa/o e unica/o. Pon tu fé en el Universo. Algunas cosas estàn destinadas a suceder, y otras no. Deja ir de cualquier cosa que robe tu felicidad, es dicicil pero vale la pena. Abraza al cambio. Abraza a la vida. Todo sucede por alguna razòn, hay veces que solo hay que respirar, confiar y dejar ir.”
I, like Jason have always looked forward to a time when I could be a father. I was lucky to have been blessed with a great father and understand the importance of good father figure in your life. I want to be a great role model for my own kids, make them proud, and help them to grow stronger and better than myself. I am thankful for my father and I know someday I will return life this great gift and become a great father myself. Jason Momoa, thanks for being a real man. They world needs more real.
Keep growing in the light direction.
“I found balance and i found my passion. I wanted to see the world climbing. I craved the road, the wild, i wanted to get out and explore it all. Camping, fires, playing music, telling stories, living in the dirt, eating crackers and sardines. I packed up my life and i put it on my back, free to wander, everywhere. From Tibet to France, Italy, Japan… Everywhere USA. My travels made me a student of life.”
“I found my path, i’m a craftsman, my craft is story telling.”
“I’m a father. I found my place, my home. Like any father we want our children to see us doing what we love.”
“I decided to surround my children with who I am. With music, Painting, all my art forms. Cause if I teach them to skate, then they can surf or snowboard. Ultimate balance, bold and brave in any terrain. And if I teach them to climb, then they can push themselves to the limits, gracefully move through fear and doubt. To learn respect for our natural resources, cause if they can admire natures truest colors, they can begin to see the beauty in all things, to be aware of those inconspicuous and overlooked details of life. I want to give them my eyes. They will know art. They’ll paint, sculpt, they’ll understand light and darkness, the composition, to find their soul. And that’s where the music lies, the soul. Teach them to play because if they can play they can sing, if they can sing then they can dance and when you dance you celebrate. It is all connected. These lessons will tech them expression of self and if I build it I can teach them hard work, and dedication, integrity, the moral code. Now every time my children play they can feel like their papa is always with them.”
corimagua 