What Follow That Bird Taught Me About the Journey to Publication
I loved this movie growing up. Big Bird is sent off to live with the Dodo family in Illinois and far away from Sesame Street, but he doesn’t like it there. He’s homesick. He takes it upon himself to go back to his real home. It’s a simple premise, but it’s old school Sesame Street and created for little kids, not us big ones.
The best part of the movie are the songs. My favorite is the song with Waylon Jennings* and Big Bird called “Ain’t No Road Too Long.” If your firewall’s blocking the video, go here for the lyrics.
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The song speaks a lot to anyone on the journey to publication. At first you know nothing about the journey and think it will be super fast, then someone with more knowledge tells you how long it really takes.
You think, “Crap. It’ll never happen.”
Then Waylon Jennings breaks into song. When he tells you “There ain’t no road too long,” he means that if you want it bad enough, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there. He gives you tons of advice in that first verse: from taking each rejection as a positive and to continue to push ahead.
If Big Bird can do it, all of us can.
* Some people might recognize him as the guy who sings The Dukes of Hazzard theme on the TV show. Of course, I could be dating myself.
** Though this movie is from 1985, I totally owned the flannel Waylon Jennings is wearing in 1994.
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Last.fm hit of the day: The Dark One by Darkseed
Awesome post, Alicia! We own this movie, and watch it regularly, but I had never made that correlation. 🙂
Oh my gosh, Follow That Bird! I LOVED that movie as a kid but haven't thought about it years. I totally got all choked up reading this. Excellent post!
LOVE this analogy! And I completely forgot about this movie–thanks for bringing back good memories. 🙂
I <3 Follow That Bird. Sometimes the best advice comes from Muppets … and Waylon Jennings. And speaking of Waylon Jennings, every time I hear his name I get the Dukes of Hazard theme song in my head …
Great post. Sesame Street and the Muppets are so full of wisdom.
Thanks for the reminder, Alicia. I never saw this movie, but two out of three kids thought it was pretty cool. (I'm afraid the 7 year old said "I HATE this!")
Feeling so nostalgic right now… haven't thought about this movie in years!
Great post.
Thanks everyone for stopping by and commenting. I knew Sesame Street was supposed to educate, but who would've thought that would apply to us as adults as well!