Today, I’m thinking about Red Fraggle.
Look, it’s silly. I know it’s silly. Frankly, I’m also thinking about a lot of other things. You can probably guess what those things are. But I work for a Muppet website, not a “stockpiling HRT website.”
I’ve seen a lot of these other Muppet sites and performers and all that say “Well, we need to remember to find joy in the Muppets!” or “Let’s all get along like the Muppets would!” That’s not what I’m thinking about right now though. I’m not turning to Red Fraggle for meaningless silliness and joy, because if you’ve seen “Marooned,” you know that’s not what Red Fraggle is. I’m not turning to Red Fraggle because she’s always nice and gets along with everyone, because if you’ve seen any episode of Fraggle Rock, you know that’s not true.
I’m thinking about the Season 2 finale of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, “Hope and Socks.” In this episode, after a season of ordeals I won’t bother reiterating here, things finally start going well for the Fraggles. Red, always confident and eager, is sure that her friends are going to win this one. After all, all the signs are pointing towards her problems being solved forever. That’s what makes narrative sense! That’s the way the story has to go! And so Red dubs herself the Captain of Hope, and is happy and excited and amps everyone up.
But the Fraggles’ initial plan fails, and things start falling apart. The solution isn’t as easy as Red hoped. She falls into despair, and in her gloom, only the eternally gloomy Boober can provide the solution: you’ve got to hope, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. Hope isn’t just for when it’s easy and seems good. Hope gives you direction, gives you a reason to do the things you need to do.
As Red puts it, hope is a game we get to play every day.
Now, phrasing it that way is maybe a lot more positive than my current view on the world. Red is, typically, a gleefully happy Fraggle. She says “get to play.” I might say “have to play.”
But either way, hope happens daily. Hope happens when the Gorgs’ garden is dusty and dry. Hope happens when you’re marooned behind a giant boulder. Hope happens when you’re trapped in a circus cage and painted blue, or when your car breaks down in the desert miles from Hollywood, or when your country seems to universally reject your very humanity.
And hope is a game. Red doesn’t say that hope is an emotion we get to feel every day. It’s a game. It’s active. It’s about doing. Hope requires action.
Today, I’m thinking about Kermit the Frog.
I’m thinking about his line in the 2011 Muppets film, when all hope seems lost and the Muppets lose their theater to billionaire braggart Tex Richman, even though the Muppets worked together and pulled out all the stops. Kermit picks himself back up, and tells his friends this:
“Listen everybody, we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. And you know why? Well because, thanks to Walter here we tried. And if we failed, we failed together and to me that’s not failing at all. And I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t care if no one believes in us because… I believe. I believe in you. And you. And you. You know what’s important isn’t this building or name, it’s each other. So I say fine, let’s just start from the bottom and work our way back up to the top. Let’s all walk out through these doors with our heads held up high, as a family, because that’s what we are.”
We failed, folks. We put on the best damn telethon the world had ever seen, and we failed. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, we’ve lost the metaphorical building we all live and work and play in. We failed. But we failed after playing the game of hope, and that’s not a real failure, you know? We tried, and that counts for something. We’re at the bottom now, but we can work our way back up. And one thing we have, the only thing they can’t take away from us, is our family.
Today, I’m thinking about my family.
I’m thinking about my mom and dad and my sister and my spouse. But I’m also thinking about my found family of trans people and allies. About my fellow ToughPigs, about Katilyn and Matthew who reminded me of the quotes I used in this article when we all felt at our lowest. About Danny Horn, who wrote so eloquently about Muppet values when we all felt hopeless on September 12, 2001. I’m thinking about you reading this article. You helped me raise over 5000 dollars for LGBTQ+ charities in the past two years. We’ve done huge things and will keep doing huge things.
As the song goes, we’ve got us.
So we’re down right now. The bad guys won. I’m not going to pretend this is a good feeling. As an extremely out and loud transgender woman, I’m very scared right now.
But you know what? That’s okay right now. Today, playing the game of hope looks a little different.
Today, I’m thinking about “It Makes You Cry.”
It’s a song that comes in a moment on Back to the Rock where Gobo realizes he can’t bottle up his feelings any longer. Before he gets back to working on solving all the problems in the world, he just needs to sob.
Gobo’s emotions are real. My emotions are real, too. I can’t pretend they aren’t. Reading about Red and Kermit is honestly just making me cry even more.
Right now, the Muppets aren’t a source of joy for me, despite what some people are saying. They’re a source of strength.
It takes strength to say “It makes you cry. It makes you ache, and it leaves you blue.”
That’s how I’m playing the game today. I’m resting. I’m crying. Then I play it again tomorrow in a different way altogether.
Tomorrow, we organize. We figure out how we can help each other, even if things seem hopeless. We fight for each other.
Today, I’m thinking about me.
Here in NY, I worked really hard to spread the word about our state Equal Rights Amendment, Proposition 1. I tabled at events, gave presentations, made videos. A friend saw me working at a Proposition 1 booth at a roller derby bout and asked if there was any event on Long Island I didn’t distribute Proposition 1 materials at.
And you know what? Proposition 1 passed in NY. Abortion rights and trans rights are cemented in the NY constitution. It’s a small victory against the massive loss we suffered, but it’s something.
I played the game of hope, and in this aspect, I won.
I’m going to play this game every day. And you are too. My promise to you is that we’ll keep fighting. Yes, ToughPigs will still mostly be about Red Fraggle and Kermit and all that. But I promise we’ll also tell you what you can do to help, just like we’ve always done. The way forward might not be what we expect. Things are going to be different.
But every day, we can do something that brings us closer to our goals. Every day, we get to play the game of hope.
And maybe, Red was even more right than I thought. Because we don’t “have” to play this game, we “get” to. Because every day we choose to play. Every day, we wake up and choose hope. It’s important that we cry now, but it’s important that we play the game of hope later. I know I will. I promise you, I’m not giving up hope that easily.
Today, I’m thinking about that.
Click here to play the game of hope, together, on the ToughPigs Discord.
