|
Last week in Las Vegas, we enjoyed the popular musical, Jersey Boys. A few days later, we watched the Academy Award-winning documentary, Searching for Sugarman. This week , we are preparing for Easter and I have been reflecting on the comparisons among those three very different stories.
Jersey Boys begins in a humble, blue collar neighborhood in New Jersey. Its main characters have a rough start through drugs to jail, but over the course of 90 minutes they rise to stardom as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Their upbeat songs still trigger an enthusiastic, toe-tapping response from boomers who knew them when: Sherry Sherry, Walk Like a Man, Big Girls Don't Cry, Dawn. Valli suffered painful setbacks, including divorce and the loss of a daughter. But in the end, his story has success written all over it. Jersey Boys has been a Las Vegas hit for five years.
Sugarman begins in a humble, blue collar neighborhood in Detroit. Its main character is a mysterious young man who sings at a waterfront bar called The Sewer. Sixto Rodriguez cut two records, sold a handful of those, and disappeared. Meanwhile, his music made its way to South Africa and became a hit there (bigger than Elvis, bigger than the Rolling Stones.) Sugarma n, I Wonder, Crucify Your Mind, and A Most Disgusting Song reflected and energized the movement to overturn apartheid and reinvent South African society in the 70's. Thirty years later, Rodriguez found his fans halfway around the world. Sold-out crowds gave him a taste of the celebrity he had missed while raising three daughters as a day-laborer. The story ends with Rodriguez still living a humble, unpretentious life in Detroit, unchanged by his late-breaking fame. He is at peace and untroubled by what might have been. The story of success written about his life uses a different language from the one we usually employ.
The Easter Story begins in a humble stable in Bethlehem. It concerns a mysterious young man who appears in public to teach key lessons, then retreats from center stage. The fans treat him like a rock star on Palm Sunday. His friends betray and abandon him on Holy Thursday. He is executed as a political criminal on Good Friday. On Easter his followers, consumed by grief, go to the grave and find that he has risen from the dead. Two thousand years later, he continues to transform people around the world. His success is written in every language.
A few weeks ago, we reflected on success and failure. Here we are again. We really never know, in the moment, when our lives are making a difference or in what ways. I find that unsettling and I find it reassuring. Each of us has the same opportunity to wake up each morning, give thanks for the gift of another day, and do our best. We can trust the rest of the story to unfold in its own way.
What success stories do you find most inspiring? Where do you find sources of wisdom and hope?
|
