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Your Only Job Is to Let Yourself Be Good Enough
And that’s a job you should start today
You know that Coldplay song, Viva La Vida? The one with the strings and choir that tells the story of a fallen king:
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning, I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I’ve always wondered why it’s such an upbeat song. Why it’s called “long live life” when it’s about someone who’s lost everything they had in theirs. Well, Chris Martin, lead singer of the band, once explained the title.
When he was in Mexico, he went to a museum, and, in there, he saw the last painting Frida Kahlo ever made. It’s called Viva La Vida.
If you know anything about Frida Kahlo, you’ll consider a bunch of half-eaten watermelons a strange choice of image for a painting she knew would likely be her last.
Kahlo was a Mexican painter, active between the 1920s and 40s. She mainly drew self-portraits, sometimes realistic, sometimes surreal, to explore what it means to be Mexican, a woman, and a human being in general at the time. While she was alive her work…
