Encanto, me encanta + I❤L-M.M. (Part III)

7 min readMar 25, 2022

Time for the finale. Even if you didn’t read about Intimacy or Generosity, or download our v.2 Prescription, that’s okay. I’m glad you’re here now.

Popular TV & movies can spark team wellness talks — check out the 14 days of my new year series 2022: the Lasso Way, with week1 &week2 of steal-able content.

Now I’m on to my latest enchantment, Encanto. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably heard it. Last month, every song from the soundtrack was on the Billboard Top 100.

I took 40% of the lyrics from the finale, All of You, and re-ordered them to show themes from our Nonprofit Wellness trainings, like Team-care and Emotional Intelligence. (If you’d rather be surprised about the plot, maybe eschew this section & skip to my Lin-Manuel Paean, further down.)

The data: All of You lyrics re-arranged in 4 themes:

Theme 1. Team-care works best
Theme 2. Emotional Intelligence starts with self-awareness
Theme 3. Apologies, done right
Theme 4. You are enough: ALL OF YOU (see full 4:34 video)

I. Team-care works best

Townspeople: Lay down your load / We are only down the road

We have no gifts, but we are many / And we’ll do anything for you

Isabela: It’s a dream when we work as a team — You’re so strong

Luisa: Yeah, but sometimes I cry.

Isabela & Maribel: So do I!

II. Emotional Intelligence starts with self-awareness

Luisa: I may not be as strong but I’m getting wiser
Isabela: Yeah, I need sunlight and fertilizer

Camilo: “Okay, so … we gonna talk about Bruno?”

Pepa’s man: That’s what I’m aways saying, bro!

Agustín: The triplets all reunite!

Maribel: Hey Mariano, why so blue?
Mariano: I just have so much love inside

Dolores: You write your own poetry every night when you go to sleep
And I’m seizing the moment, so would you wake up and notice me?

III. Apologies, done right

Bruno: “Got a lotta ‘pologies I got to say” …

Pepa, I’m sorry ‘bout your wedding, didn’t mean to be upsetting
That wasn’t a prophecy, I could just see you were sweating
And I wanted you to know that your bro loves you so

Abuela: And I’m sorry I held on too tight — Just so afraid I’d lose you, too

IV. You are enough: ALL OF YOU

Maribel: It may seem hopeless but we’ll get by just fine

Family: And no matter what happens we’re gonna find our way

Family, to Maribel: We see how bright you burn
We see how brave you’ve been
Now, see yourself in turn
You’re the real gift, kid, let us in

Abuela: The miracle is not some magic that you’ve got
The miracle is you…all of you

Susan’s Paean to Lin-Manuel

In case it ain’t obvious. I ❤ Lin-Manuel Miranda.
(I stan Lin-Man Miran?)

I’m a GenX Baltimoron raised on Broadway musicals, MJ, Madonna, hip-hop, y hablo espanol, so sure. Lin’s my type. His Disney songs have topped pop charts, but the reason i love him most is:

He single-handedly brought my kids & I closer, through music, history, and dance.

Nine years ago, I took my kids to Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia MD, to see In the Heights. I had no clue about the show…but it fit as my daughter’s birthday gift that everyone could benefit from.

Since then, in our kitchen (w/ DJ Alexa) and on road trips, we have rapped and harmonized and danced along with the Miranda canon. It’s really the only genre/artist we all share. I suspect our family is not alone.

10 reasons why Lin-Manuel is a role model for me, and my kids (he’s the American dream):

He’s a (McArthur) Genius.
Lin’s the adorable boy next door, a band geek who reads history on vacay, marries his high school crush, is a no-nonsense ally to the gay community, and names his firstborn after a Disney crab.
He could become the youngest EGOT (winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, considered the greatest honor in the entertainment industry). Fingers crossed for Dos Oruguitas. The winners are already decided, so I can’t jinx it the way Lin-Manuel jinxed the 2016 election, see below.
He writes songs to raise $$ in the wake of disasters: “Almost Like Praying” was inspired by West Side Story and Hurricane Maria
Lin has free-styled for ages, in two languages, from everywhere. Bringing his childhood NYC cypher skills to the Rose Garden, to Broadway, and on dozens of talk shows and podcasts, bringing free-style rap mainstream. His choreographed mashups, ghostwritten intros, real-time summary raps — all, legendary. Que cerebro! What a brain!
Lin used Twitter (he now has 3.6 million followers), to create a community by interacting with fans in 65% of his posts, using retweets and comments. This social media campaign reached folks “who would never set foot in the Richard Rodgers theatre.”

Lin-Manuel’s use of Twitter has introduced Broadway to new audiences

It was social media moves like this that democratized and diversified the upper-class, mostly-White culture of Broadway and swept the Tonys with mostly-BIPOC Hamilton. Then, he created the first all-Latino major motion picture, In the Heights. Y’all, he’s only 42.
He occasionally uses naughty words, parties, flutters his eyelashes and is an extroverted clown — which all contribute to his relatability and charm.
He’s a musical polyglot .The bilingual, New York-born son of puertorriqueños, Lin groks the musical stylings of Polynesia (Moana), Britain (Mary Poppins), Colombia (Encanto) Broadway (tick tick, BOOM!) and good ol’American Hip hop (Hamilton, Bring it On).
In lieu of an acceptance speech for a Tony in 2016, he wrote a sonnet dedicated to promoting love and stopping hate, and delivered it hours after the Orlando tragedy when hearts were breaking and overflowing…then collaborated w/J-Lo to make “Love Makes the World Go Round” benefiting the Pulse nightclub victims.

This show is proof that history remembers

We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger

We rise and fall and light from dying embers,

Remembrances that hope and love last longer.

Lin-Manuel has also sparked many discussions & debates in our family, such as:

Should the topic of slavery have been included in Hamilton, per “Cabinet Battle #3” and the Compromise of 1808?
Were there enough dark-skinned Latinos in In The Heights (movie)?
What is the mix of Latino representation in the Mount Pleasant and Langley Park neighborhoods in DC, compared to Washington Heights NY?
How did Lin-Manuel write for his own (mediocre) singing? How did he write for someone else’s (amazing) rapping and singing talent?
Where is the cha-cha beat? Merengue? Cumbia? Can you salsa to this?
Where is the round (96,000, Bruno, Farmer Refuted)?
Can you imagine being Lin-Manuel’s crush and having a musical character (Vanessa) named after you, whose first 22 words to the world are “NO”?
Did he do it? The most damning thing associated with Lin-Manuel is, he may have jinxed the presidential election when he hosted SNL in Oct ‘16.

He couldn’t resist a jab to the future prez on SNL, October 2016 - ARRRGH

But we love ya, L-MM.

Keep creating, so the rest of us can keep reacting.

What to do with All of You, the song:

Listen to it! Here’s the full 4:34 video.
Get up and move while you listen. Moving w/ Music is #10 on our Immune Booster list…
Yes, the 12 Immune Boosters — you can download for free, in English or Spanish, and use as a discussion tool with your team. Or order some postcards and send a note of wellness and gratitude to a teammate.
If everyone has seen Encanto, spark a discussion: “Which character do you most identify with?”
Folks can listen to a family therapist break down Madrigal dynamics. Or check out the many TikTok trends.
Throw a Dance Party: the whole soundtrack is a bop, especially “Colombia, Mi Encanto,” sung by Carlos Vives. Try a different dance for each part of the “round” structure of “We Don’t Talk about Bruno.” Have a Baile Latino lesson to teach/practice cha-cha, merengue and bachata — YouTube can be your guest teacher.
Don’t forget, the whole reason I wrote this trilogy is because we are revising the Personal Stress Prescription and we want your feedback. Please send it my way via info@nonprofitcomfort.com and stay tuned for the new tool in April.