We can all agree that alot of reading goes on in public transportation. Swiping pictures of funny taglines and titles draws you in. The visuals are there so you can read the words.

From one topic to the next information gets thrown at us.

People have pretty much gotten use to seeing and reading the latest tragedy and then tuning in on their favorite sports game and then catching up on the latest movie to watch. All within minutes.

It’s time to take control of what you read.

Too much content interrupts our lives every day. How many readers would naturally watch much less choose so many topics to look into in such a short period of time? Our society has normalized this behavior.

It was called t.v. surfing when someone constantly changed channels. Now we just skip from the internet, to U-Tube, to Instagram, to e-mail, to Netflix, to app, to game, and whatever else.

Have you ever made a waiter annoyed while skipping from one part of the menu to the next because you didn’t know what you wanted to order? Well that’s what we do to our brains everyday on our cell phones. We lack focus and intent when we just skip from one screen to the next.

It’s like eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks all at once. No one eats all their meals at once.

Stop doing that with your mind.

It’s an easy fix to read with a purpose.

Every day make a choice of 3 – 5 things you will do on your cell phone.

The list can look like this:

1. Text or telephone important people in your life.
2. Watch one favorite U-Tube channel.
3. Read a novel.

Next day:

1. Watch the news to stay current.
2. Upload and share pictures.
3. Read an article or magazine.
4. Make important calls.

Or the following day:

1. Listen to music.
2. Choose a topic you wanted to learn or research about.
3. Check up on what’s going in Social Media.

We have to become like parents/guardians to ourselves when it comes to how much time we spend using our cell phones, laptops, smart phones etc.

With the weather becoming sunny and bright, look up rather than down. Life can be lived in the moment in the real outdoors not just another scene created for you on your cell phone.

If you suffer from a bit of withdrawal symptoms, take a book along and stay concentrated on reading just that book with your cell phone away.

You don’t have to be entertained or stimulate your brain all the time. Learn to take time to listen to your own thoughts one day at a time.

Get on purpose with your life. Choose wisely what you read or what you watch.

Shut off the attention hogs for 24 hours every once in a while. Leave your phone in your bag or better yet at home. Try for just one hour and then increase the hours so that you can do more.

Again, read with a purpose. You’ll see your life improve when you do.

Regine Baptiste

Copyright

May, 2019

Alot, was going on in that neighborhood. People of diverse backgrounds were welcomed by Mr. Rogers; the most unassuming man in America tiptoed into our hearts and minds.

A character on t.v. who was a misfit to what had just occurred in the Civil Rights movement.

Mr. Rogers had such a profound effect on me that my very first copywriting letter swiped his mantra of “Would you be my neighbor?” The jingle still tap dancing on my brain decades later.

Just be yourself. Children learned how to engage and have conversations with others different from themselves. Mr. Rogers asked the questions and we patiently listened to the answers along with him. Needless to say many future talk show hosts would imitate his style.

Mr. Rogers showed us what compassion looked like.

It seemed like he and the American men protrayed on the t.v. miniseries “Roots,” were light years apart. In Mr. Rogers’ personality, we saw an example of what Martin Luther King stated about not judging a person by the color of their skin but the content of their character. Mr. Rogers was MLK’s poster child and we never made the connection. The gashing wound of so many marginalized men just a few generations from slavery still dominated the American pulse.

Mr. Rogers simply invited you into the neighborhood. Segregation, Jim Crow, flight from rural areas, and continued marginalization did not exist in Mr Rogers’ neighborhood. Nor could we imagine the gentrification to come.

Rather than exploring all of these tough issues, little children found a safe space to laugh, ask questions, wonder, smile, get comfortable, sit down and relax.

Eddie Murphy shattered that image on Saturday Night Live’s skits of the hood. A ghetto stereotyping “black” men as criminals with warped thinking that made people laugh. Eddie Murphy’s Mr. Rogers sarcastically robbed a little old lady of her groceries only to use the contents in a “nutrition lesson” for little children. Back to square one. The reality so grossly protrayed that some neighborhoods are outright scary.

Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood was a fantasy, a lie.

According to Eddie Murphy, we were no longer laughing with Mr. Rogers but laughing at him.

We had already grown up and were no longer watching Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Our childhood icon had sent us out in the world with unrealistic expectations. Eddie Murphy didn’t tell us anything new.

Mr. Rogers had a way of softening the blow with a song. He sang, “when the whole wide world seems all so wrong,” to calm our protests as little kids. Not the song to sing at the real rallies of grown-ups.

Mr. Rogers, a man who had a way with us kids. He skipped into our imaginations not yet corrupted by disappointments and responsibility.

Mr. Rogers was our guide outside his make- believe neighborhood. He showed us how things were created in a land where most jobs had not yet been exported.

Mr. Rogers’ gentle touch was welcoming against the abrasive and cruel realities some of us kids had already faced. Let’s remember him that way.

People can change. We don’t have to live up to stereotypes. Mr. Rogers just was. You don’t have to live in a prison of your past.

Mr. Rogers invited girls and boys to imagine neighborhoods where you would be engaging in dialogue. Let’s keep the conversations going. Keep reaching out to those in your community. Social media does not have to dominate.

Regine Baptiste

Copyright May, 2019