So, being a glass half full person – more a glass one quarter full, if truth be told – I have a certain standing when it comes to telling you about something positive that I have found. Not being a positive person, I can recognize real positivity when I see it, unlike you optimists who see almost everything in a positive light because that is your nature.

Ain’t mine.

But, because I know how you love to view the world in a positive way, I bring you a positive song. It is called “Ella y ‘el” by Ricardo Arjona. First, though, a bit about the singer, stolen from Wikipedia:

“Edgar R. Arjona Morales (born 19 January 1964), known as Ricardo Arjona (Spanish pronunciation ri’ka?ðo ar’xona,) is a Guatemalan singer-songwriter. Arjona is one of the most successful Latin American artists of all time, with more than 40 million albums sold. He is often called El Animal Nocturno (The Nocturnal Animal), thanks to his breakthrough success with his fourth studio album which bears the same name.”

OK, that’s enough. Now, here are the song’s lyrics:

“Ella y él” (She and He)

English translation from lyricstranslate.com

She’s from Havana, he’s from New York

she dances tropical music, he likes rock

she sells kisses in a brothel, while he

studies at the UCLA

she’s sort of marxist, he’s a republican

she wants to be an artist, he hates Cubans

he believes in the Statue of Liberty

and she in her old Havana full of solitude.

He eats hamburgers, she rice with beans

he drinks champagne with strawberries, she a Cuban mojito

she went on a tour to Yucatan, and he went on holidays to the same place

she’s mulatto from top to toe, he’s blond like the sun

she doesn’t speak English, and he doesn’ts speak Spanish

he went for a drink without suspecting

he was about to find love in that place

What ideologies do to split humankind

can be joined in the name of love by affection threads.

She moves her waist to the rhythm of tan tan

and he’s divorcing Uncle Sam

he seeks refuge in her skin, he wants it for him

and she’s forgetting Fidel

what did Lenin and Lincoln know about love?

what do Fidel and Clinton know about love?

She sits at his table

he shivers with excitement

her name is Teresa and his is John

she says “hola chico” and he answers “hello”

she doesn’t stop talking, he says “speak slow”

he put his flag away, she forgot the conflicts

he found a way to allow love come out

victorious

he held her hand and took her away

the Yankee fell in love with the Cuban.

What ideologies do to split humankind

can be joined in the name of love by affection threads.

Now they live in Paris, they found a neutral territory

she managed to become an actress, he’s a normal bloke

they walk hand in hand along the Champs Elysées

like someone who’s laughing at this planet and its prejudices.

See? It makes you think anything is possible. I emphasize “you” because I know better but I’d like to believe. There are a lot of things I’d LIKE to believe but can’t seem to but I do believe there are people who actually believe positive stuff and maybe Ricardo’s song will empower them a bit more.

Me? Well, I really, really want to believe that this woman’s movement still alive in the nation will accomplish something in the long run, but … I’ve seen too many movements, too many people convinced that THIS ONE IS THE ONE or THE REVOLUTION’S HERE or WE ARE ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

Man, I wish. OK, I’m not sure about the revolution because, you know, “Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.” Really, was Stalin better than the Czar? I don’t think so. Hitler over the Kaiser? Oh, that sure worked well.

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I went to the march in Wilton on the day before the anniversary of the first National Women’s March. I’d gone to that one in Wilton, too. Well, see, here’s the thing: In 2017, nearly 300 people showed up. 2018? About 50. They were 50 true believers, I’ll grant you that, and from one little acorn blah, blah, blah, but I would have felt better if 50 people had shown up in 2017 and 300 people this year. Movements need to grow. Shrinking isn’t good.

Right, I get it: A smaller crowd is not an indication that the movement is dying, just an indication that only a few people could be bothered to show their support by actually showing — key word — their support.

But I despair because it is what I do, even if I want, want, WANT to believe.

So now and then I listen to Ricardo Arjona’s “Ella y él” and I think, well, yeah, OK, somebody had hope, at least for the time it took to write the song, and I envy that hope but it’s hard for me because I listen to the news on NPR and I read the papers and I’m dumb enough to wonder how we can be busting and outing all these alleged – required word until after a conviction regardless of the evidence beforehand – sexual predators and still be forced to listen to another ALLEGED one give THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS. Arggghhhhhhhhh.

Of course, he denies every allegation, even one on tape, and calls lots of women liars and absolutely did not have a financial arrangement with that woman and that’s good enough for a lot of people who, when they choose to actually think about it, bellow, “Yeah, well, what about what Bill Clinton did?”

Right. Clinton was, maybe still is, a pig and should have been busted right out of the White House, good for the economy or not. But because he got away with piggy behavior, does that mean that …

Ah, what’s the use. In this case, the glass is empty. Period.