Oh, I needed to read this wonderful piece on Fred Rogers today!
As for the agenda of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”, it was deeply resonant with the agenda God offers us as co-creators of our life and world, and with the comfort of being held in good hands. First and always was the affirmation of unconditional love: “I like you just the way you are” is what every child heard from Fred every single day. That’s a message any of us would welcome hearing ourselves.
Some parents, however, misunderstood that statement, noting a preschool child’s numerous means of irritating them. But there was no reason for Fred not to deliver that message; after all, the viewing child was not annoying Fred. This isn’t to say that Fred didn’t have empathy for parents. Himself the father of two sons, he well knew the challenges of parenting. And some of his songs, like “What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel”, were written to help children constructively manage their own impulsive behavior.
But Fred was not there to dispense lessons and rules. He was there to be a grace note in children’s lives.
Read it all. Mr. Rogers was not just a grace note in children’s lives. My Elder Son adored him, and we would together together watch him, each afternoon. Once, when he wondered about something Mr. Rogers had said, I encouraged my son to write to him with the question. He received a prompt and kind response from Fred Rogers, congratulating him on thinking up the question and giving a satisfying answer. A few years later, I wrote my own letter to Mr. Rogers, thanking him for something he had taught me through his show, and also for being the personification of human kindness that seemed so “otherworldly” to me that I knew it was a model of grace for all of us — communicated through his modest, centered person. Again, a prompt, very kind response.
He was a holy, even priestly, man. Certainly he was everything the story below this one is not — a champion for the dignity of the human person. He was the antidote to all of that.
Note that he didn’t say, “God bless you”. This is important. Saying “God bless you” would have been superfluous. Fred was not goading God to up and do something useful for a change. He knew that God had already blessed them, couldn’t help but bless them, would always bless them.
“May God be with you” meant, “I hope that you are aware that God is with you” — Fred’s invitation to savor God’s imminence and transcendence and personal presence, and to put a Name to it.
I wish I had a gram of his kindness and ease-of-manner. Here are great Fred Rogers moments. The second is discussed in the article:
I see the first clip all the time because we watch PBS every day, and it never fails to bring me to tears. The love, the respect, the kindness, and yes the holiness comes through in a profoundly clear way.
I was not blessed to watch Mr. Rogers growing up. As an adult, I now realize how very much I have missed.
Now this is good! Thank you for posting this!
Here in Pittsburgh we treasure him as one of our own!
When my middle daughter was a newborn I carried her (in her convertible carseat) into a local card shop in a neighborhood near WQED, where Mister Rogers was taped.
It had started raining hard outside and I was feeling guilty for taking a new baby out in that kind of weather. To make matters worse, while waiting in line for the cashier, she started to cry…that insistent, infant cry. I tried a few tricks to distract/calm her down but nothing worked.
Anyway, who should be standing behind me in line but Fred Rogers!
He bent down to stroke my baby’s forehead and murmured something in that famously soothing voice of his. She stopped crying immediately and simply gazed at him with wide eyes. He definitely had the touch, in person on on the air.
Truly one of a kind.
I still watch reruns of his show. I like him.
He was indeed a prince of a man. Both videos brought me to tears.
I went to the studio in Pittsburgh with a family friend when I was very young, just to see the set, and I ended up leaning against an emergency exit and setting off the security alarm. He still sent me an autographed photo a few weeks later.
I still remember when Mr. Rogers was a guest on Arsenio Hall’s late night talk show in the early 1990′s. I was quite uncertain how Arsenio would handle the interview. Then he started off with a comment about Mr. Roger’s neighborhood being the only white neighborhood in which he (the young Arsenio) felt truly welcome.
My sister was (briefly) privileged to work with Mr. Rogers many years ago in Texas. When the planning the event (which was a fundraiser of some sort) became maddening for all concerned, Mr. Rogers would inhale deeply and then say, “Oh, dear” quietly. At an outdoor party after the fundraiser, an event populated by wealthy adults and some children, Mr. Rogers spent his time talking with the children. My sister was delighted to see that there was no difference between the man on television and the real man.
Mr. Rogers was a great man who continues to inspire me, and if someday God blesses me with children, I will be sure he inspires them. Unfortunately, his wonderful show is no longer on my local station, but I’ve written and I’ll write again in petition that it be brought back. May Fred Rogers rest in peace; may perpetual light shine upon him. God Bless.
Oh, I loved Mr. Rogers as a child! His show brought me much happiness and sparked my imagination. I am struck still by his gentleness and unassuming nature. Just a genuine smile and a humble spirit. Thanks for this, Elizabeth.
He was one of the few celebrity figures that I was sorry not to have been able to meet in person. With so many of them, you come to find out that they were horrible people in private life. I’ll never know for sure, but I would be very surprised if that were the case for Fred. He seemed like a truly decent man and traded on nothing flashier than that. It’s hard to imagine someone like that doing the same in this age of reality TV and a public sphere that has all the grace of Nero’s arena, but we could sure use someone like him more than ever.
I loved Mr. Rogers and so did my family. When he died we all cried and I read so many tributes. Some grown men admitted they cried in their offices while “holding their calls”.
He was truely a kind and loving man and unlike so many of us, NO ONE was ever able to say a bad thing about him.
I wrote him twice and got prompt replies and he always knew what to say. I liked how even comedians that made fun of him, once they met him, said they apoligized and didn’t do it anymore.
I know he was welcomed home with a “job well done” : )
This was a wonderful book by a man who was friends with him and followed him around on and off. Look at page 90 for a touch of what a special person he was. I ask for his intercession also.
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Proud-You-Friendship-Rogers/dp/1592402275#reader_1592402275
He was a wonderful man, kind, decent, and truly saintly. If a non Catholic could be a made saint, he should be.
My favorite Mr. Rogers memories:
- My middle daughter sitting in the family room watching Mr. Rogers after her brother and sisters had left the room, staring intently and saying, “Look, Mama, everyone has left and he’s still talking just to me!” The theme of her college entrance essay was Mr. Rogers!
- Watching him on a candid camera-type show where they removed the TVs from the hotel rooms of people who were attending a television conference. There were many reactions – all of which were irritated – and then there was Mr. Rogers who said something like, “Oh my, well I don’t think I need one. And how is your day?”
- When he appeared on PBS after 9/11 calming the fears of not only the children but the adults, most of whom trusted him like a father.
A living example of love. Thanks for the reminder, Elizabeth!
Back in the late 80′s Eddie Murphy did a skit on Saturday Night Live “Mr Robinson’s Neighborhood”
Across the hall in studio 8-J, Tom Synder did a interview show, his guest that night?, Fred Rogers – as Eddie ran through his final rehearsal, at the knock on the door, he opens and Fred Walks in, Immediately Eddie is 5 years old and excited to see Mr Rogers, Fred spent the next 30 minutes signing autographs and talking pics with SNL staff.
CLASS ACT!
“as Eddie ran through his final rehearsal, at the knock on the door, he opens and Fred Walks in, Immediately Eddie is 5 years old and excited to see Mr Rogers, ”
I can see myself reacting exactly the same way. Something truly unique and eternal about Mr Rogers , even as he celebrated everyone else as ‘special’ over and over and over.
My mom got me his record album that had a mirror on it ‘ you are special’ . I recall the song , ” you can never go down the drain.” He really got how much courage is required to be a little kid.
I loved that book mentioned above because the author thought a few times that Fred would react one way and he reacted another, in a holy, good way, not the first thought that comes to many minds.
When a woman spoke out in church about the war, going on and on, everyone was getting uncomfortable and squirmy and he thought how rude she was. Mr. Rogers afterwards went over to her, spoke a few words and gave her a hug…he later told the author, what pain she must be in, maybe lost someone in the war and he realized the thought never occured to him.
Maybe we can’t make him a saint, but I know in my heart, he is one anyway.