When the Nostalgia Powered Time Machine Breaks

Wayback Wednesdays are normally easy to write. I look at On This Day in the 80’s, find a topic, become the living time machine, and have a few paragraphs of fun while embracing the importance of the positive side of nostalgia. But right now it is hard to do.

In my personal life I am still reeling from the anniversary of my suicide attempt and the associated points of a life of trauma that led to that, one of our Fem Fridays and a dear friend is in the ICU and has been in that damn hospital for over a month, and then there is the election and the various reactions over it.

It is easy to write about the connections of the past and the present in the second draft of my upcoming YA novel, Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World. It is more than a book, it is a mission to speak on important themes based on amazing people while also offering entertainment. It offers reality and hope.

In life right now, it feels like people see more reality and less hope. That is not who I am. Living like that almost led to the end of my life.

There is hope and I will write again about it on Monday, but for now, I want to take a moment with you.

While I tune up the nostalgia powered time machine, we need to talk.

Mister Rogers told us some amazing things about our emotions. It is okay to be scared or sad and to cry or stomp our feet. We also need to tell someone that we are scared or sad. I am scared and sad too. But one lesson Mister Rogers taught me was how great it feels when you are about to do something wrong in your anger, and you stop, and do something else. You express it, you do not hold it in, but you do not hurt anyone.

We are hurting each other right now and it makes me sad. I don’t want any of you to stop feeling what you are feeling and I hope you are punching a bag and pounding clay and telling someone. But please, stop hurting others. Even the ones that want to hurt us.

I am leaving you with the lyrics of one of his songs and I will see you on Monday. I need to see how fast I can go.

What do you do with the Mad that you Feel

What do you do with the mad that you feel
When you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh, so wrong…
And nothing you do seems very right?

What do you do? Do you punch a bag?
Do you pound some clay or some dough?
Do you round up friends for a game of tag?
Or see how fast you go?

It’s great to be able to stop
When you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong,
And be able to do something else instead
And think this song:

I can stop when I want to
Can stop when I wish
I can stop, stop, stop any time.
And what a good feeling to feel like this
And know that the feeling is really mine.
Know that there’s something deep inside
That helps us become what we can.
For a girl can be someday a woman
And a boy can be someday a man.

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