Me

Celebra
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    Published by Celebra, an imprint of New American Library,
    a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
     
    First Printing, November 2010

     
Copyright © RM Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
     
    CELEBRA and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
     
    LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
     
    Martin, Ricky.
    Me/Ricky Martin. p. cm.
    eISBN : 978-1-101-47504-1
    1. Martin, Ricky. 2. Singers—Biography. I. Title.
    ML420.M3323A3 2010
    782.42164092—dc22
    [B] 2010034364
     
    Set in Sabon

     

     
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Dedicated to Matteo and Valentino Martin
     
    My light, my focus, my strength, my little masters, who, with just a simple gaze, know how to tell me, “Don’t worry, Daddy. Everything is okay.”

INTRODUCTION
    God, help me to tell the truth to the strong and to avoid telling lies to get the weak’s applause. If you give me fortune, do not take away my reason. If you give me success, do not take away my humility. If you give me humility, do not take away my dignity. God, help me to see the other side of the medal. Don’t let me blame others of treason just because they don’t think like me. God, teach me to love people as I love myself and to judge me as I judge others. Please, don’t let me be proud if I succeed, or fall in despair if I fail. Remind me that failure is the experience that precedes triumph. Teach me that forgiving is the most important in the strong and that revenge is the most primitive sign in the weak. If you take away my success, let me keep my strength to succeed from failure. If I fail people, give me courage to apologize and if people fail me, give me courage to forgive them. God, if I forget you, please do not forget me.
     
—MAHATMA GANDHI
     
     
     
    GANDHI’S WORDS TOUCH MY HEART.
    At some point in our lives, all of us ultimately arrive at a moment when we are somehow compelled to look back and consciously reflect on the life we have led. We feel the need to understand where we come from, because we want to see with more clarity where we are actually headed and where it is that we really want to go; we search for a way to balance that which we have lived and that which remains for us to experience, with the desire, perhaps, to find a more meaningful purpose to our existence. Some people decide to do this when they are older, closer to the end of their lives, but for me this moment is right now. Today I