Publish or Perish

Is a writer who never writes really a writer? In the nearly four months since my eight-year career as a newspaper columnist for the Boone County Journal came to an unceremonious end, I have only written sporadically for this blog. In fact, it has been two months since my most recent post, and that is simply unacceptable.

I started blogging fifteen or sixteen years ago. What began as a way to entertain myself and a few friends turned into a deeply satisfying creative outlet. I experimented with different writing styles, perspectives, and voices, and by 2009, I decided to write a book. In 2011, I published Naked Snow Angels, a fictionalized memoir created from a collection of short stories I had been working on for several years.

Having self-published and self-promoted a full-length book that managed to sell a few hundred copies, I began to secretly consider myself a writer. I started writing for the Boone County Journal that same year, and when new acquaintances inquired about my occupation, I said, with some trepidation, "I'm a writer."

I liked the way that sounded. Actually, I LOVED it. As the years went by, I felt more and more comfortable referring to myself as a writer. What else would you call a person who has written four hundred newspaper columns and four books?

Although I haven't written much lately, I am still a writer. A favorite pastime of writers is making excuses for not writing. My excuses are fairly legitimate, I think. First, I was hired to teach music at Southern Boone Primary School full-time last fall. Having no formal training in music education, I have had to devote virtually all of my energy and spare time to coming up with engaging lesson plans for 475 students in kindergarten through second grade. I'm happy to report that the results of my efforts have exceeded my wildest expectations.

I have discovered that I am a pretty damn good music teacher. My seven years of substitute teaching experience and a lifetime of music-related experiences have helped me achieve my ultimate goal of getting my young students to fall in love with music. The feedback I have received from the kids, their parents, their grandparents, their classroom teachers, and my administrators has lead me to believe that my skills as an educator may rival my skills as a writer.

Do I sound boastful? Yep. But more importantly, I'm being completely honest. I'm really good at my job.

So far this year, I have taught my students about tribal drums, baroque, classical, and Asian genres of orchestral music, jugband music, bluegrass, and ballet. The kids have played drums and various other percussion and homemade instruments. We've learned how to prepare for and perform in concerts. We've learned about pitch, tempo, rhythm, dynamics, tone, vocal performance, instrumental performance, notation, and composition. Kids as young as six years old have learned how to write short melodies. In the coming months, we will study the history of modern music including country, blues, rock, funk, disco, reggae, Latin, Cuban, jazz, and pop. Next week, I will teach 475 schoolchildren about the Carter Family, Bob Wills, Patsy Cline, and Willie Nelson and then we will sing Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" while I attempt to play guitar.

Despite my passion and talents, the great state of Missouri does not think I am qualified to teach music permanently. Because my undergraduate grade point average was lower than an arbitrary number some politician came up with, I am not eligible for an alternate teaching certification program available to people who posses a bachelor's degree and prior teaching experience. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), no exceptions to the GPA requirement can be made in any circumstance whatsoever.

My only option, then, would be to go back to college and earn either a bachelor's in music education or a master's in education with an additional step of taking a content-area exam in music. Both options would involve at least 2-3 years of coursework, and after taking a few prerequisite classes online, I have had to admit to myself that at this point in my life, I simply have no desire to make that kind of commitment and sacrifice.

Between teaching full-time, being a parent to three amazing kids, being a husband, and being a writer, there is little time or energy left to commit to being a full-time graduate student. Therefore, I am sad to say that when the current school year ends, my brief career as a music teacher will end as well.

I will remain a fixture at the primary school in the future when I return to my original role as a substitute teacher. And you can bet that whenever I get the opportunity to sub in music, I will make the most of it.

On the bright side, returning to part-time work will free-up some time for me to resume my writing career. My goal for 2020 is to write a novel and to find a publisher who will buy it. Self-publishing is like masturbation: Sure, it feels good, but it can never be as satisfying as the real thing. Finding a publishing house to buy my book would be like having sex with someone else--for money! (Ok, maybe that's not the best analogy.)

The point is: writers gotta write, and that's what I plan on doing a lot more of in 2020 and beyond. As always, thanks for reading.

The Not-Quite-Right Reverend

Did you know, in addition to being a husband, father, writer, music teacher, online college student, luthier of jugband instruments, and classic car enthusiast, I am also an ordained minister?

I received my ordination through the Universal Life Church Monastery in 2010. You can learn more about the church here: https://www.themonastery.org/aboutUs . A variety of celebrities are also ULC ministers, including late night talk show hosts, famous authors, and all four of the Beatles. A partial list can be found here: https://www.universallifechurchministers.org/

Like most of the 20 million people who have been ordained by the ULC, or in my case the ULC Monastery (an offshoot of the original ULC), I wanted to be able to perform wedding ceremonies for friends. So far, I have officiated twenty weddings for friends and friends of friends. I've also had the honor of legally uniting three same-sex couples and two mixed-race couples as well.

My ministry is more than just weddings, however. I believe my true calling is my ability to bring joy to the world. Through writing, teaching, making music, and performing the occasional wedding, I try to bring people a little happiness. Last week, there was a lot of happiness happening in Mister Naughton's Neighborhood.

Last Tuesday, my second graders at Southern Boone Primary School performed the music of my hero Mister Rogers, himself an ordained minister and mentor to children. Both performances were well received by the parents, grandparents, and teachers in attendance. As proud of the kids as their families no doubt were, no one was more proud of them than I was.

Singing songs about accepting and loving people exactly as they are, 150 second graders spread Fred Rogers' message that each of us is special and deserving of love. I had tears in my eyes more than once as I watched my students perform the songs they had worked hard to learn over the last two months.

Tears of pure joy.

While it is true that I am an atheist, meaning that I do not believe in any god or holy spirit, I do believe in the power of the human spirit. Last Tuesday, I witnessed that spirit in the eyes and voices of my students as they sang life-affirming songs including "Many Ways to Say I Love You": https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=DqSBqfDgOsQ&feature=emb_logo
and "It's You I like": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BZlyxS37Kk&t=7s . I highly recommend clicking on the links to see the power of the originals for yourself.

With the second grade concerts behind me, I now turn my focus toward preparing for next month's kindergarten holiday concerts. You can rest assured that Mister Naughton will be doing his level best to bring even more joy to the world that day.

It is never my intention to brag about the good I do for others. I only hope to inspire you to do good deeds and spread joy as well. That's a minister's job, I think.

With that thought in mind, I would like to encourage you to consider adoption if you’re thinking about adding to your family. November is National Adoption Month, and also the month in which Bethany and I adopted our son Truman 11 years ago. A couple years later, we adopted our daughter Tiana, completing our goofy, loving family. There are many more kids out there waiting for a family right now.

What will you do to spread some joy today?

A Short Story

I’m currently taking an online course about short stories as a prerequisite for my master’s in education program. About halfway through the course, it’s going pretty well. I’ve passed 47 quizzes so far, with 52 to go (one for every chapter). I’ll have to write two papers and take a final, too. After that, I’ll still have 4 more prerequisites to take before I can be officially accepted into my 24-course master’s program.

Long story, short: it is really hard to see a light at the end of this long, long tunnel.

On a related note, studying the art of the short story has renewed my love of short-form writing. I’m really starting to miss writing my weekly column for the newspaper. Maybe a collection of short stories is in my future.

Teacher? Author? Columnist? Crazy person?

Crazy person.

What a Day

What a day. After backing my truck into a tree during a torrential downpour this morning, my day could only get better. And it did.

Much better.

I taught seven classes today, nearly 130 students in all. We sang songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, The Sound of Music, and several Halloween songs. We also danced. A lot. I may have also unleashed a blood-curdling witch's cackle that sent kids scrambling for cover a time or two. Or seven.

After school, I led a Musician Badge-earning presentation for a group of Girl Scouts. Part one of the lesson was about how music is made. First, we watched video clips of performers stomping and clapping to make music, then the girls and I stood in a circle and tried creating our own rhythms. Next, we watched a clip of a drum line performing an elaborate routine that was a great example of making music with instruments. Then we sat in a drum circle and jammed together. After that, we watched Julie Andrews sing "Do-Re-Mi" to learn about pitch and making music with our voices, and then the girls and I sang the song.

During part two of the lesson, we learned about music from around the world. We watched a video clip of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" as an example from Europe, a performance by an ensemble performing traditional Chinese music, and a song by a Cuban jazz band. Then we watched clips of modern American music including pop, country, and rock.

Finally, I showed the girls a collection of my homemade instruments including cigar box guitars, percussion instruments, a shoe box violin, a diddley bow, and my garden trellis harp. I talked about how I made them and demonstrated how to play them. Then, all the girls got to play two instruments before we ran out of time.

The smiles on the girls' faces, and their sincere thanks, made me all but forget about the rough start to my day--until I walked outside and took a closer look at my truck's rear bumper.

It was just a another day in the life of Travis Naughton--a life that is never boring. Some days are frustrating. Others are maddening. A few are positively amazing. And every now and then, a day can be all of those things and more.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Notes From the Music Room

Armed with a thick binder, chock-full of state learning standards, I have created my own curriculum for teaching music to my students at the Primary School this year. And I have to say that so far, things are going even better than I had hoped.

My overall approach is to divide each 45-minute class period into at least three parts. The first part always involves singing. The second usually involves playing or learning about instruments. And the third part typically involves watching videos of live musical performances and/or dancing to musical selections.

Through the first six weeks of school, students in kindergarten, first, and second grades have made music with their hands and feet, with plastic tubes called “Boomwhackers” that make a musical note when they strike the ground, and with drums. They’ve also been able to see and hear a violin, a trumpet, a trombone, and a homemade harp that I brought from home.

While learning about these and other instruments, the kids have watched video clips of African drums, baroque music, classical music, and music from Japan, China, and India. They’ve listened to masterpieces from Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven and a fantastic jazz recording by my good friend Matt Kane, an incredibly talented percussionist.

While listening to these great works and playing various instruments, the kids have learned about musical concepts such as rhythm, tempo, pitch, and dynamics. Starting tomorrow, they will get the opportunity to show off what they have learned so far. As an ensemble, they will be playing instruments such as xylophones, drums, and other assorted rhythm instruments.

The school’s first assembly of the year took place last Friday, and after weeks of rehearsing our school song, the kids finally got their chance to shine. And shine they did. Several teachers later told me that it was the best performance of the school song they had ever heard. I was extremely proud of my kids, and they were pretty proud of themselves, too.

My second graders have also been hard at work learning five songs for their concert in November. They are singing the music of Mister Rogers, including a version of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” that I wrote with lyrics about the Primary School.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, we will sing holiday songs, patriotic songs, and more Mister Rogers songs. We will learn about melody and harmony, notation, and composition. We will listen to examples of blues, jazz, country, rock, soul, reggae, R & B, zydeco, disco, funk, hard rock, alternative, and many other genres covering the history of music in America and other parts of the world. We will also learn about (and play) homemade and conventional instruments.

Kindergartners will prepare for their winter concert, first graders will rehearse for their spring musical, and everyone will continue to sing, dance, play instruments, and have a whole lot of fun, all the way through to the end of the school year.

While all of this is going on, I’ll also be spending my evenings and weekends working towards earning a master’s degree in education. Eventually, I hope to add a music certification to my credentials so that I can teach music permanently.

In the meantime, I plan on enjoying every single day of this school year. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to share my love of music with 460 of my closest friends, and I don’t want to waste a minute of it worrying about the future.