Jarrod Fairclough – I usually stay pretty neutral on this site. It’s not where people come to hear opinions on politics, agendas, social movements and the like. Instead it’s a place where people can come to learn and to laugh, with the most extreme opinion being that the Muppets/Lady Gaga special kinda stunk.
So today’s post is going a little bit out of the ordinary, because I keep looking at the current state of humanity and wondering – what the hell is going on?
At the time of writing, America is in the midst of a government shutdown based on the whim of an unstable leader who has an idea that won’t work. Scientists are seriously concerned that the rate of global warming could destroy the world in a matter of years. Racism and sexism is broadcast daily by people who should know better. It’s disgusting, it’s sickening, and it’s extremely disheartening.
So what does this have to do with Muppets, I hear you say? I ask that you turn your attention to the 1990 Sesame Street song ‘We Are All Earthlings’, written by Jeff Moss, and performed by a group of characters that include Elmo, Chicago the Lion and Little Bird, as well as a random assortment of fishes, birds and wildlife and a Muppet boy. If the song isn’t familiar to you, or you’ve forgotten it, here you are:
It’s high time that the people of the world take the message of this song to heart, and remember that no matter what happens, we’re all in this together, and no one person is better than another. This song is just one big 149 second metaphor. Some of us have feathers, some of us have fins. We live in the desert, we live inside a tree. And we all live together on a planet of the Sun.
I tend to forgive people who think the world revolves around them, because for every single one of us, that’s how it feels – we are the center of our own universe, every other person in the world, even family, is foreign to us, because we only truly know ourselves. But even then, most people have learnt that this world is full of actual human beings, who still have every emotion, every bit of happiness, every bit of sadness, every bit of regret, every bit of excitement, that we are individually capable of feeling. Unfortunately, that minority of people who don’t care about anyone slightly different to them are getting louder. And we’ve tried combatting their hatred with matched hatred, and that just doesn’t work. So maybe we need to match it with love. Not necessarily love towards them, but love for the shared experience of humanity we’re currently experiencing alongside these people. I’ve got bad news for you – none of us are getting out of this thing alive. But if we can find a way to remind these people that we’re all in this together, maybe they’ll get the point and realize that, to pivot to another franchise for a moment, peoples is peoples.
A photo from another environmentally important Sesame Street song, On My Pond.
But even if we don’t all want to get along for humanities sake, why aren’t we doing it for those who have no voices – the birds and the fishes and the frogs and the Chicago the Lions? Climate Change is real, and yet a lot of people, not necessarily always the people I referenced above, have their eyes shut about the epidemic. It takes just a few moments to do some real research, heck, you may even need to head to the dreaded Page 2 of Google for some real answers, but a change needs to be made or we’re all in big trouble.
So, that’s it for me harping on and taking things in a different direction. We’ll keep on talking about The Muppet Show and Sesame Street and Chicago the Lion. I just needed to say my piece. But I’ll leave you with a final bit of wisdom from the song this article is named for;
All of us can have a happy healthy place to be, if we can float and swim and glide in earthling harmony. We are all Earthlings.
