Sabiduría Susy Díaz

Y mueve la cabeza también.

Mueva la cabeza, especialmente en estas épocas de pandemia, o se pone tiesa.

Y no te hagas mala sangre cuando veas que hay gente en la calle corriendo o caminando con el perro porque realmente no vale la pena; no los conoces y no sabes cuál será su historia. Estamos viviendo un momento angustiante e increíble, sin precedente. Nadie gana na’ amargándose y menos aún haciéndole cargamontón a la gente online. Pa’ qué.

Ocúpate más bien de tu contribución y no de la ajena, de lo que tú puedes hacer y de lo que efectivamente estás haciendo, que es lo único que sí puedes controlar. Preocúpate no más de cómo eres, de cómo has sido, y de cómo quieres ser. Para vivir la vida, uno tiene que adaptarse. Tal vez puedas pensar que no vamos o vas a cambiar mucho, como colectivo o como individuo, que no vamos a cambiar nada (porque uno no cambia…). Pero somos una especie que ha sabido surgir y adaptarse a este planeta, así que para qué rajar y acusar y criticar. Lo último que necesitamos es sentir que estamos en un estado policíaco encima de todo.

Mejor aprovechemos esta oportunidad para configurar este nuevo enfoque obligatorio en nuestras vidas para ver si derrepente no lo podemos mantener y sostener y aprender a gozar a largo plazo. Para que la vida – y los titiriteros que de una u otra manera nos han estado controlando – nos deje de vivir y la podamos empezar a vivir nosotros en toda gloria y a mil por hora.

Como diría la sabia Susy Díaz, vive la vida y no dejes que la vida te viva.

And now, for the cheap seats in the back….

Susy Díaz is a Peruvian entertainer and like, this badass Peruvian Renaissance woman.

She was a nobody, who rose through the ranks at one of the networks down there, going from secretary to multi-hyphenated on-screen talent, all the way to getting elected to the Peruvian Congress in 1995. A populist and widely underestimated candidate, Díaz borrowed from the Cicciolina’s handbook and mined her own God-given cheekiness to court attention during her campaign, when she painted a red “13” on her ass. It worked.

After she was elected, she advocated planned and informed parenthood and promoted safe sex (condom use…in a deeply patriarchal and religious society), as well as HIV/AIDS awareness, if, looking back on it, a little on a sort-of-prejudiced-against-gays kind of way. It’s all there in the literally tone-deaf, yet catchy and kitschy songs that she produced and put out at the time – a smart way of getting her message across and to the people, one must admit. She wasn’t perfect, and neither was her effort, but it was something.

The thing about this woman is she always was authentically herself and no one else. What you see is what you get with Susy Díaz. And, if she says she’s gonna do something, she does it.

This is true of her now (girlfriend’s still out there hustling harder than any of the new kids on the block, hosting events and sharing her unique POV and wisdom on social media – dude, she even went viral five years ago, when she was caught on camera dancing on Rockefeller Plaza and like, upstaging a live in-studio Fifth Harmony performance on the Today show), and she proved so back in her Congresswoman days, when she made good on her campaign pledge to share her first paycheck from Congress with the people of Pamplona Alta, then a human settlement in Lima that has morphed into one of the capital’s poorest and most underserved neighborhoods.

Her most famous mantra, “Vive la vida y no dejes que la vida te viva,” basically encourages people to live life or else life will live them.

Perfect advice for these trying times when active participation (from home, at home) and mindfulness are in order.