By Jon Morrow
_____________________________________________________________________________
Jon Morrow is one of my teachers β online.
All I know about blogging, I learned from him, when I registered for βSerious Bloggers Onlyβ.
The course is epic.
As we joked at the time, what makes an article or a blog post epic, is its βEpicness.β WOW.
Jon first published this article on Christmas Eve, 2012, and it still rings fresh today.
Fight for your ideas.
Enjoy.
_________________________________________________________________________
The doctor cleared his throat. βIβm sorry, but I have bad news.β
He paused, looking down at the floor. He looked back up at her. He started to say something and then stopped, looking back down at the floor.
Thatβs when Pat began to cry.
Sheβd argued with herself about even coming to the doctorβs office. Her baby was a year old, and he hadnβt started crawling yet. He tried, yes, dragging his legs behind him as he struggled to make it just a few feet on the floor, but it didnβt look right. Everyone told her that she was worrying over nothing, and maybe she was, but she told herself that she would take him to the doctor, just to be safe β¦
βYour son has a neuromuscular disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy,β the doctor said. βItβs a form of muscular dystrophy that primarily affects children.β
Pat was speechless. Everyone had told her she was silly. She had hoped she was wrong, prayed she was wrong, but still . . . she knew.
βWhatβs going to happen to him?β she managed to say.
βWhere most children grow stronger as they get older, your son is going to get weaker. Heβll lose the ability to move. Heβll lose the ability to breathe on his own. And one day, heβll catch an infection that will spread into his respiratory system, giving him severe pneumonia β¦β
She held up her hand to stop him. βYouβre saying he is going to die?β
He nodded. βThere are three types of SMA. Caught this early, your son almost certainly has Type I. Most children with Type I die of pneumonia before the age of two.β He paused. βIβm sorry.β
Pat looked up into his face and saw that he really was sorry. It made her angry. Not because of his pity, but because in this manβs eyes, her baby was already dead.
βDonβt be sorry,β Pat said, wiping tears away from her face. Her voice was suddenly very calm. βHe isnβt going to die.β
βItβs important you understand the situation, Mrs. Morrow. The pneumonia β¦ he wonβt be able to fight it.β
βHe wonβt have to,β she said. βIβll fight it for him.β
The miracle of mothers
Over the next 16 years, I had pneumonia 16 times. But I never died. It sounds strange to say it, but my mother wouldnβt let it happen.
She orchestrated a team of more than a dozen doctors. She slept in a chair beside me in the hospital, sometimes for as many as 30 days in a row. She pounded my chest and back every two hours to loosen the mucus, covering my chest and back with bruises.
Today, at 27 years old, Iβm one of the oldest people in the world with my type of SMA, and people tell me itβs a miracle. And I agree, it is. But the miracle isnβt just me. Itβs a mother who fought like only a mother can to keep me alive.
By βalive,β I donβt mean just βnot dead,β either. Youβd think my mother would have been satisfied for me to live at home, tucked away from the world where she could protect me, but for her, that wasnβt living. She insisted that I be great.
When my elementary school principal decided that disabled children didnβt have a place in her school, my mom appealed to the school board and turned every board memberβs life into a living hell for two years.
She won.
When I wanted to play basketball, she forced an astounded coach to reinvent the rules of the game so that I could be the βball carrierβ for the team, and no one could take the ball away. Not surprisingly, everyone wanted me on their team.
When I could no longer pick up a pencil, she arranged for honors students at local colleges to help me with my homework after school. I graduated at the age of 16, not only near the top of my class, but with college credit.
If youβre a mother, none of these things surprise you. Some mothers are weak, sure, but the vast majority fight for their children, especially when those children are defenseless. Itβs not because theyβre trying to be heroes. Itβs because thatβs their job.
And I think we can learn something from them. Not to minimize what mothers do, but Iβve come to believe that our job as writers is not all that different.
Fighting for your ideas
Growing up, I always had to fight to get people to listen to me.
The worst part about being disabled isnβt the pain or the struggle but how the world tries to shove you into a corner and pretend that you donβt exist. After all, what could you possibly have to contribute? Youβre going to die soon, poor thing. Hereβs a nice, quiet room and some morphine to ease the pain.
They donβt proactively hold you back, no, but they donβt expect you to succeed either. Iβve spent my entire life fighting against the weight of those expectations.
Like when university professors were flabbergasted when, on the first day, I asked my attendant to raise his hand, so I could answer the question that no one else could.
Or the vaguely constipated look on the face of a venture capitalist when I asked for $500,000 of startup capital for my first software company.
Or the disbelieving stares of people at a real estate conference when I gave a talk about buying million-dollar homes without even being able to get up the stairs to see the inside of them.
Their disbelief has never stopped me, of course. Itβs not a matter of persistence or strength or attitude, as some people think. Itβs a matter of shame.
How could I possibly look my mother and father and all of the others who have sacrificed so much for me in the eye and tell them, βI canβt?β I couldnβt bear it. The shame of dishonoring their sacrifice by giving up would poison my soul.
And so I fight
If my mother could ignore a doctor who would condemn me to death, then I can ignore my inner demons who tell me Iβll never make it as a writer.
If my mother could demand that I achieve straight As in school, then I can demand greatness from every blog post I publish.
If my mother could lobby school administrators and government agencies to get me the help I needed, then I can lobby bloggers and social media power users to get my idea the attention it deserves.
Not to imply that Iβm unique, because Iβm not. Yes, Iβve had to overcome a lot of adversity, but so does every creative person who wants their ideas to see the light of day.
If you want to succeed, you canβt wait for the world to give you attention the way a cripple waits for food stamps to arrive in the mail. You have to be a warrior. You have to attack with the madness of a mother whose child is surrounded by an army of predators.
Because, letβs face it, your ideas are your children. Their future is as tender and delicate as that of any newborn.
You canβt just write them down and expect them to succeed. Writing isnβt about putting words on the page, any more than being a parent is about the act of conception. Itβs about breathing life into something and then working to make sure that life becomes something beautiful.
That means spending ten hours on a post, instead of 30 minutes.
That means writing a guest post every week, instead of one every few months.
That means asking for links without any shame or reservation, not because you lack humility, but because you know down to the depths of your soul that what youβve done is good.
You have to realize that your blog is more than just a collection of ones and zeros floating through cyberspace. Itβs more than the words on the page. Your blog is a launchpad for your ideas, and you are the rocket fuel that lifts them off the ground.
So burn it up, baby.
Your ideas are counting on you.
You can write as well as Jon Morrow if you practice daily. It starts with attending BWC.
