This is for all you who have....

[Krazedmuppet]

This is for all you who have been made fun of for likeing the Muppets,
who have required some nick name in school,
and for all the obscene Muppet stuff the kids find to show you.

This is for all you who have been laughed at for your dreams,
for you who have either told your parents or the school counselor that you want to become a puppeteer when you grow up,
they laugh and respond "no really, what do you want to do?"

For all you who have a collection of Muppet stuff,
when friends come over ask "isn't that for little kids? why don't you grow up?"
You just don't feel understood.

For all you who Jim Henson is you hero and in some way he has changed your life for the better,
you take on his dreams of making people happy,
loving each other,
and leaving this place a little better than you found it.

For all you who feel alone,
know that you are not,
for if you felt or had any of this happen to you,
It happened to me too

Don't give up.






Lifes like a movie,
Write your own ending,
Keep believing keep pretending,
weve done just what we set out to do,
thanks to the lovers the dreamers and YOU.


Yeah, well I've got a dream, too. But it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And, well, I've found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And it kinda makes us like a family.

Have you been half asleep?
And have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name
is this the sweet sound that called
The young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Wow! Thanks for putting this together, and thanks for the encouragement!

 

[theprawncracker]

Oh like wow, that was so awesome. Thank you so much for posting this. And it's so true to life. (((((HUGS)))))

 

[Morgan Clueless]

None of this really happened to me when it came to Muppets, but it's possible and true to life. But now that I think of it, I remember one time in summer school (recently, over the last summer) when I mentioned to a friend of my best friend in middle school that I liked Fraggle Rock, and he asked, "Isn't that a kid's show?" I don't remember how I responded, but I remembered this moment just now. (Pretty convenient. )

And there's this boy in my English class who also happens to be a friend of my so-called friend from last year. He's a Muppet fan, but he's also one of those kids that would most likely be labeled as "The Weird One". But he just happens to be the only other kid in school [as far as I know of] that knows as much about Muppety and Fraggle Rock-ity stuff as I do. And since I've changed lunches (I won't get into detail about our weird schedule at school), I don't really see him much anymore. And that makes me sad because he was the only other person in school besides myself that I would consider a Muppet fan that actually knows something more about the Muppets. I'm probably sounding a tad melodramatic right now, so I'll stop writing in three... Two...

~ Morgan "Clueless" Goat

... One.

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Man, I'm sorry that happened to you.

 

[lowercasegods]

Maybe it's not as common these days, when the potential for artistic expression seems virtually limitless and everything's exceptable in one way or another, but I can tell you that in my day (the early 80's), I suffered my share of teasing and ridicule for my fan worship of the Muppets and my interest in puppeteering. "Boys aren't supposed to sew." "Boys don't play with dolls." The worst was in my freshman year of highschool, the day after it was made known that Jim died. There was one particular group of guys who'd tormented me since gradeschool, and they took cruel delight in tormenting me about Jim's passing. What I'm trying to say is, Krazedmuppet, maybe not everyone's been on the losing side of Muppet fandom, but I have, and I know where you're coming from. Thanks for sharing your heart, and thanks for having the strength to perservere in the face of the small minded, cruel hearted and the pitiful masses lacking in imagination and spirit.

 

[furryredmonster]

That's a really awesome poem!

 

[Krazedmuppet]

When I was a Senior (I graduated from HS in 2003) I had this counselor, she was (sill is) horrible at her job. She only cared about people who had straight A's cuz it made her look good, she would take all the credit. If you got bad grades (like me) you were like.... dirt to her, you made HER look bad. SO WHEN she would give you the time of day is when she would try to motivate you to do well- not for your sake, but her own. Anyway, I got called in there one day and she was going over how I had low grades (only one F but I got it up) and she was acting like I would never make it higher than McDonald's and I HAD to go to a 4 year collage to make ANYTHING of myself. (I come from a family of 6- there is just no $ for me to do something like that, a community collage is just as good) She asked me "well what DO you want to do with yourself?" In a very snotty way and I replied "I want to be a puppeteer and work for the Jim Henson company" she looked at me with this horrible look and replied "no really, what do you want to do" I didn't reply- BUT if I had the mouth I have now- I would have said some things, and brought it up to the principal. Shes a horrible monster, you cant do that in her job, crushing kids like that, she does it a lot. Just cuz Puppeteering doesn't look good on HER record...... Watch- Ill become a famous whatever and she will say "I was her school counselor!" mumble mumble grumble.....

 

[KermieBaby47]

Ugh. What an unmentionable something-or-other.

I don't know if it's because I come from a small town or what, but this didn't really ever happen to me, even in High School.

When I was a Sophmore, we had to do some kind of presentation in Chemistry, and I used my homemade Kermit. Everyone loved it, even some kids who I didn't hang out with. They all said I sounded just like Kermit, which made it even better!

I do, however, realize that the majority of kids today aren't as accepting when it comes to certain things, and that is horrible. What you put together in the first post, that is incredible. People like you are why this world is still able to hope.

 

[Super Scooter]

"Boys aren't supposed to sew." ... yup, that sounds familiar.

I never say that I "make" puppets anymore. ... I say I "build" them. Sounds more manly.

I know a lot of people who support what I do, and I know a lot of people who think it's childish or silly. College is something I can't afford, and really have no desire to get into, so workmates will often criticize me for that. Then when I tell them what I want to do... well, "there's no money in that!"

Puppetry isn't about the money. I'm more than willing to work a second job to support one of my main career goals, to "build" and perform puppets.