Saturday, June 29, 2013

Speak Your Truth - Even When Nobody Listens

I just saw the most amazing film called Searching for Sugar Man.


It's an unbelievable true story about a guy named Sixto Rodriguez who recorded a few albums in the late 1960's and early 1970's that were a total flop - at least here in the US.


But unbeknownst to him some bootleg copies somehow made it into South Africa during the heart of the oppressive Apartheid period, where his music became not only popular, but absolutely iconic.


But get this... somewhere between the censorship of a closed Apartheid society and the corruption of the music industry, word of his fame (not to mention the monetary rewards that should have gone with it) never made it back to Rodriguez.

He had NO IDEA that people halfway across the world were listening to his music, and because of some strange rumor, everybody in South Africa thought that he was dead.


Anyhow, this is the amazing story of how these guys in South Africa set out to find out what happened to him, and ended up discovering the man himself... alive and well, and working as a manual laborer in Detroit!


So here he is some thirty years after the albums were released. His music career is all but forgotten, and these guys come along, pull him out of obscurity and take him to South Africa where he is hailed as a hero.


I'm struggling to find an adequate word to describe this story... "uplifting" doesn't seem to do it justice.

I mean here's this guy who buy all societal measures would have been called a failure. Yet half way across the world he's an icon, and a hero, and his music helped to spark a movement that overturned one of the most oppressive regimes in history.


What a story!


We live in this crazy world where everybody is so focused on "success" and "rewards" and "recognition" and "popularity" - but it's like we've forgotten that those things aren't really the goal at all, they're simply side effects that come from living a meaningful life... from putting yourself out there, being a person of integrity and speaking your truth to the world.


Or at least that's how it ought to be in my humble opinion. All too often these days it seems like people seek fame and stardom simply for the sake of fame and stardom. I can never figure out what the fascination is with these people who are famous simply for being famous.


Then when we do engage genuinely, and the recognition, or money or popularity doesn't come immediately, we tend to throw up our hands in frustration and give up. So here's the perfect story of why you shouldn't give up, and why you should keep making your proverbial music - even if you're not "successful" at all.


We just don't know how our actions are gonna affect other people in the big picture sense. Maybe our message just hasn't found the right audience, or the right time, or the right place, or the right whatever - but that doesn't mean we should stop delivering it. Because somewhere, sometime, somehow it could fall on fertile soil, and we may never even know it.



I keep thinking of the last verse of the Jackson Browne song For a Dancer.


Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go 
May lie a reason you were alive 
But you'll never know




Go forth peoples! Speak your truth to the world, and never EVER let anybody convince you that what you have to offer isn't good enough, or important enough, or unique enough, or whatever enough to matter. Somehow, somewhere, sometime your voice will find its way to the people who need to hear it.




16 comments :

  1. Wow! What an inspiring story. Between Sugar Man's story and the Jackson Browne song, I'm going to be looking at things a lot differently today. These are all things that we know, but often forget in the everyday world we live in. Thanks for sharing

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    1. It sure puts things into perspective doesn't it?

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  2. Fascinating story. My personal take is that American society values the wrong things--fame and fortune aren't lasting values (and the Paris Hilton frame? Priceless!).

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    1. I totally agree. It's like people think that popularity and fame will make them feel validated and important. But it really doesn't work that way. The recognition is only as meaningful as the work and contribution that earned it in the first place.

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  3. What an interesting story :) I really don't understand the obsession with fame and fortune - as I write this I'm watching Masterchef and it really seems to me much more about being an over-the-top personality than being a good cook.

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    1. Ha! I had the same sensation about the singer songwriter movement. I went to a music conference 20 years ago or so, and all of the most popular performers were just terrible musicians... but they had persona. It just made me crazy!

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  4. What a dream come true that must've been to find out your muse is actually not dead! :)

    I don't mind people getting recognition/gratitude/compensation for a job well done, but I don't think that should be the main motivating factor (and the dizzying level of fame that some people receive - like athletes - frustrates me). It's similar to advice I heard at the National Book Festival a few years ago - that authors should write to send a message, or explore a feeling, or tell their story, NOT just in hopes of getting published.

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    1. I totally agree. People should focus on the "job well done" part, not the rewards!

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  5. I'm going to look out for that film. And I like your message here. Couldn't agree more.

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    1. It's definitely worth watching. I found it at my local library, but I'm not sure where you can find it there.

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  6. Hi, I'm Frances from the UK. What a fantastic and inspiring post! Thanks. I'm a Quaker and one of our maxims is "speak truth to power" which we do up to UN level. But sometimes it seems as though one is banging one's head against a brick wall; wars carry on, people are falsely imprisoned etc., etc. But it is a reminder that we are called on just to do the thing. What comes of it, who knows? Thanks again!

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    1. Hi Frances, I've always loved that quote "speak truth to power" but I didn't know it was a Quaker maxim. I don't know much about Quakerism, except that I've known some wonderful people who were Quakers.

      Our current governor, John Hickenlooper is a Quaker, and also just an amazing guy. I knew him before he went into politics because he was a community leader and a big supporter of the music school that I used to run. Anyhow, recently there was a big high profile case where the state was supposed to put some guy to death for a horrific set of murders back in the 1980's. It needed the governor's approval to go through, but John refused to give it because he's morally opposed to the death penalty. He did it in a way that left the door open for a future governor to reverse the decision because he said that he thought the people of the state probably felt differently than he did about it, but he wasn't gonna have the guy put to death on his watch. It was just so amazingly wonderful, and rare to see an American politician take a stand for all the right reasons like that.

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  7. That movie sounds fantastic; I will be finding it for sure! And thanks for the story about Gov. Hickenlooper!

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    1. A fantastic movie indeed! And it is really wonderful to have a real human being as governor. Sorta gives me hope.

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  8. What a great story, I too will be looking to find the movie. So now I just need to remember that no matter how few understand my choices I might just inspire one person.

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    1. Yup, and you never know... that person could end up being the "hundredth monkey!"

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