I posted that earlier to my facebook feed, and I’ll be honest…  When I did it I was kind of hoping it would encourage my friend who studied the life of Fred Rogers extensively to chime in because I knew he would have something pertinent to say.  I was not wrong.  

“Fred Rogers had such a huge problem with both Regan (who he programmed his show against) and Bush Jr. (The latter of which is much more complicated as they had a relationship that tested Fred’s boundaries.) that I can’t say “I can’t imagine how Fred would react” I know how Fred would react based on his interactions with the lesser evils of Reagan and Bush:

1. Had he not been retired, he would have themed weeks specifically against what Trump was putting in the news cycle. When Trump mocked a disabled reporter he’d have a week on disability and inclusion, when Trump promoted sexual assault, he’d program a week on respect and physical boundaries, when he bad mouthed women he’d have strong women on for a week. Fred would have travelled to do a week on Mexico and he would have moved in an Islamic neighbor.

I know this for a fact because these are the actions he took with Regan both with his “conflict weeks” and his traveling to Russia for remotes during the Cold War.

2. Fred would have attended events Trump invited him to but he would do so on his terms. He would participate in these events as well as long as it was on his terms. Because Fred would rather speak truth into those spaces then avoid them. But Fred would not accuse, he would just bear truth, refuse to be seen as supporting an evil and exit.

This is what he did to respond to the love the Bush family had for him and his work. He even offered prayer at one of their fundraisers: but it was a challenging prayer, one insisting that those in power and privilege use that for the least of these and especially children. After delivering that prayer Fred exited the building and sat outside like a kid after soccer practice waiting for his ride, spurning the thousands of dollars a plate dinner not even gladhanding with the bushes after.

When asked why he said he had reached the limit of what he could do before becoming an accuser. He wanted to challenge but never accuse as accusation was what Fred associated with the devil.

3. Fred would accept invitations to news programs when those programs allowed him to educate parents on countering the negative things coming from the president for their children. He knew those things affected children so he wanted to spread tools on helping them reject war, violence, hatred, oppression and racism.

He did this during any presidents term if it didn’t prevent him from meeting an obligation to children (he once turned down a spot on Nightline to talk about violence and children, one of his main causes, because he had a visit to an elementary school that same morning and knew he wouldn’t be mentally present for it if he was planning for Nightline in the afternoon.)

So we need to be like Fred. Getting in between children and any normalization of Trumps ways or words. Fred would have been diligently working on how to handle Trump in the land of make believe. Just like when King Friday started building nuclear bombs with money he promised to schools. Yeah Fred wasn’t subtle.” - Rev. Kevin Ireland

…I wish I’d grown up in the world Mister Rogers tried to make for us….

Every writer has heard of NaNoWriMo, and it sounds intimidating, doesn’t it?

50,000 words, 30 days? Yeesh. I love the idea of NaNoWriMo, but I’ve got a few issues.

1. You can only do the challenge in November if you actually want a motivating group of writers doing the exact same thing.
2. NaNoWriMo is Novel-Writing month, so it’s only for writers who are up for writing 50,000 words in one month.

So, what would be a way to solve both of these problems? Just imagine a writing herald just posting a message on tumblr saying “hey let’s actually work on stuff this month”. Now you’ve got a large community of people doing what you’re doing for the next month, there to motivate and support you. You set your own goals and find people with similar goals to be writing friends with.

I find so many writing memes complaining about how we always think and never do(and I relate to these on a spiritual level), and I know with a community’s motivation we could change that. I present to you…

GeShiDoMo

(Get Sh*t Done Month)

Here’s how this works:

1: You’ll pick one of three groups that your goals fit the best

• Group A

          Working off of a daily goal. Example: I want to write 500 words every day.

• Group B
  

          Working off of weekly goals. Example: I want to write 2 chapters every week.

• Group C

Working off of a total goal. Example: I want to write 20,000 words by the end of the month.

2: You’ll reply your group and goal below. This is so people with similar goals find you and can motivate you and talk about your progress.

3: Do it! Work, write, see progress being made. Be motivated by your friends! 

Why I think this will work:

Sometimes, you need other people to motivate you in order to keep working. Seeing people as excited as you are about your work really helps you feel great about what you’ve written and excited to write more. You can find writers who want to get the same goals as you.

Also, your goals can be anything you want. Maybe you don’t want to write a novel, not now or maybe not ever. Maybe you love short stories or poetry, and you can make that your goal. If you post out “I’m in group B, I want to write 10 poems every week”, you’ll probably find another poet who wants to write at that speed. You can pick each other up and make new writer friends, who doesn’t want that? 

GeShiDoMo can happen for as long as you want, during whenever you want, and if the writers and poets of tumblr join together you can become motivated to do what you never thought you could.

GeShiDoMo includes any goals you have at any pace, and you don’t lose it if you can’t do it. Change your goal and know that it may not be what you wanted, but you’ve gotten work done. And that’s what matters. Friends and progress.

If you like this idea, you don’t have to participate. But please, reblog so we can get the word out. This may not have the biggest group of people, but hopefully we can have a diverse set of writers and goals just trying to accomplish progress.

GeShiDoMo for March starts anytime in the last week of February and ends April 1st. Imagine coming back to school from spring break and feeling so proud of yourself because you have made progress. Think of the joy knowing you have new writing friends, and maybe you now have a month’s worth of daily poems. Maybe you have fifty pages of a first draft. Hey, maybe you edited your already written first draft. What I want for all of us is the joy of progress, and hopefully we can do this as a community.

Thank you, - Hesperus