My mother used to say el sol no se tapa con un dedo. In the case of Latino families, I think doing so is even more complicated. We’re used to being in each other’s business. Familia can sometimes mean snooping around to get to the bottom of things, asking too many questions, or just plain being metiches when, maybe, we shouldn’t be. I’m not saying that’s always the case. At least for me, it’s more often than not a frequent problem. What’s not as easy however, is being completely honest with myself.
It’s one thing to demand transparency and sincerity from others. It’s another to successfully deliver the very same for ourselves on a regular basis.
No sé… today I had to confront some ugly truths that I had been denying to myself for months, even years in some cases, and that dose of brutal clarity really left me contemplating about why I had started lying to myself to begin with. I guess it was easier to turn a blind eye, to not think about it, and to very conveniently forget these difficulties in my life all together. At least for a while anyway.
Only what I’m coming to realize now is that responsibilities don’t go away. Problems snowball and something that might have started out as a minor issue can quickly turn into a major crisis. It’s the same with relationships, I think. When we let problems or disgustos between us and our loved ones fester, they can harden our hearts and shatter the bonds we once held so tightly.
I certainly have been guilty of being corajudo and letting my anger get the best of me.
Today, however, I’ve also made the decision to not be so passive about the real problems in my life. Speaking metaphorically if you will, to grab the bull by the horns, roll up my sleeves, and jump into the trenches of reality… the whole time trusting that things will work out one way or another. I was raised a Mexican Catholic, what can I say! So many times we didn’t have anything else but faith.
What’s the translation of all of that in Spanish? I’m going to go with this other old saying from my parents: hay que entrarle a San Juan bailando y a San Pedro rezando (or something like that anyway… it’s been a long time). In other words, que le echemos ganas.
Hay que echarle ganas dear reader. Let’s do it.
