I Can Be Your Hero, Baby
Enrique Iglesias, coming alive, and changing the world
Note: STILL is still under construction. As I mentioned a month ago, I’m not currently posting weekly because I’ve been getting quiet… to discern what I want this space to look like—and to enjoy a bunch of adventures that have been good for the soul! The quiet will continue this month, but for some strange reason I felt compelled to tell you about the impact Enrique Iglesias has had on my life…
Yes, of course the title of this post is the signature line from Enrique Iglesias’ 2001 hit song, “Hero.” That’s because this past month during a random text exchange with my brother I realized that Enrique Iglesias changed my life. No lie.
It’s not because of that one time, circa 2013, when a friend and I were driving back to Seattle after a rocking Pearl Jam show in Vancouver. He was putting some music on, looking to keep the grunge vibe going. Scrolling through my iPod Touch (remember those?), he suddenly asked, “Why do you have so many Enrique Iglesias songs?”
Awkward pause.
What I should have said was, because Enrique changed my life! But I hadn’t connected the dots yet. In fact, I’m not sure how I answered, but moments later, instead of big Eddie Vedder ballads with screaming Mike McCready guitar solos, the two of us were belting out “Hero” at the top of our longs as we cruised down the highway in a Chris Farley-David Spade Tommy Boy kind-of-way.
This was a transcendent moment. But it wasn’t the life-changing moment.
That moment came over 15 years earlier, in the mid-90’s. I was a high school freshman in one of those Milwaukee, WI suburbs that people are paying a lot of attention to right now as Election Day approaches. And I was taking Spanish, my first foreign language. Profesora Stanwood was my teacher. She had high expectations for her students. She was sometimes stern and had a dry sense of humor. Though I know OJ Simpson was on trial at that time, and I’m pretty sure we watched the verdict, I don’t have any specific memories of what happened in that class.
Except one: the day that Profesora Stanwood pulled out her cassette player and introduced me to Enrique Iglesias. She told us this was the son of the legendary Julio Iglesias (apparently she was a big Julio fan). She said something about how listening to Spanish songs helps us learn the language. And then she pressed play and together we listened to “Si tú te vas.”
That moment―hearing the somewhat nasally voice of a young Enrique via a grainy cassette tape―was magical. And I was hooked.
Hooked to something.
It wasn’t Enrique.
It wasn’t the Spanish language.
It was my destiny.
This might sound like an exaggeration… But here’s the thing: Listening to Enrique in class was FUN. And it gave me a glimpse of Profesora Stanwood’s passion for the language (Hooray for teachers! And let’s be honest, she is the real hero of this story). This led to me falling in love with the Spanish language…
Which led to pursuing a Spanish major in college…
Which led to going to Spain for a semester…
Which led to me having a mystical moment on a park bench in Sevilla that compelled me to pursue the divine in deeper ways…
Which led to me to divinity school…
Which led me to become a pastor and start a church and a community center…
Which led to my burnout…
Which led to my rebirth (which I write all about in my book The Way Home) and deeper levels of courage, compassion, and capability to be an agent of love and healing in a world falling apart.
So, as you can see very clearly now… Enrique Iglesias changed my life.
Indeed, he is my hero, baby.
And here’s why this matters for you too. And why it matters now. On the eve of a consequential US election. During ongoing genocidal attacks in the Middle East. In the midst of countless “natural disasters” resulting from a human-induced climate crisis. Not to mention a host of other catastrophic issues in our world right now.
It matters because small things lead to big things. Seemingly inconsequential moments lead to massive transformation, individually and collectively. So it is critical that we pay attention.
Pay attention to what exactly?
Pay attention to what makes you come alive!
However small or large it may seem. Enrique or Spanish. A conversation or connection. A place or degree program.
Mystic, theologian, and civil rights leader Howard Thurman speaks to this (in what is one of my favorite quotes included in The Way Home) when he says:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Your true calling emerges from what makes you come alive, or what Frederick Buechner calls your “deep gladness.” When you pay attention to the tiniest gladness-inducing moments, these small gladnesses begin to snowball into… your destiny—a calling that has shape and form—and power!
Too often we suppress our own inner voice. That quiet curiosity. That subtle sense of aliveness. Instead, we let ourselves get pulled out of our intuitive knowing and into our intellect where we come up with elaborate plans and strategies―that may look good on the surface and even make a positive impact, but ultimately lead us away from… ourselves.
Leaving us estranged from our hearts.
Making us less alive.
And when we are less alive (aka, dying!), we are less capable of making a generative contribution to the pain and suffering of the world. In fact, we end up causing more pain and suffering!
One of my hospice patients, whose mind is very much fading these days, spoke to me so clearly last week about the importance of noticing—just after she had finished painting a pumpkin purple. She said,
“There are so many opportunities for people… You just have to say yes to them. People get put on your path… sometimes you don’t even notice.”
There is so much noise right now.
So many distractions.
So many voices vying for your attention.
But there’s only one you need to tune in to…
ENRIQUE’S.
Oops, I mean… the still, small voice within you—your inner knowing that nudges you towards particular people, places, interests, and opportunities. That says take this step, or walk through that door. Even when you don’t know where it leads.
This way of being changes your life.
It changes everything.
A few other things to check out:
Andrew Garfield Wants to Crack Open Your Heart
There are many moving moments in this Modern Love podcast conversation with actor Andrew Garfield.
“I wouldn’t call it a crisis, actually. I would call it a midlife exploration… reckoning… a falling apart to put oneself back together… It feels very, very natural… It becomes a crisis when you don’t consciously deal with the shit that’s going on.”
The Humanist Podcast with Chad Prevost
I enjoyed talking with Chad Prevost about The Way Home, striving, hospice work, not taking yourself too seriously on the inner journey, and much more. Check it out here.
Bewilderment by Rumi
A excerpt:
We must become ignorant of what we have been taught
and be instead bewildered.Run from what is profitable and comfortable.
Distrust anyone who praises you.
Give your investment money, and the interest
on the capital, to those who are actually destitute.Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.
I have tried prudent planning long enough.From now on, I’ll be mad.
By Rumi, from “A Year With Rumi,” Edited by Coleman Barks
This might be my new favorite post! Hero easily one of the top 5 most sing-alongable-songs of all time! I need to see you Karaoke this one!