For the Love of Mr. Rogers

I’ve got to hand it to him. Mr. Rogers was a machine, in the kindest and peace-filled and loving sort of way.

And if you haven’t yet seen the new documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, you’d best get yourself to the movie theater as soon as humanly possible.

As a child who watched the show for years, I think about how he taught me to love others unconditionally.

As a parent, I think about what it means to treat our children as the humans they truly are and to choose slowness for him.

As a woman who is passionate about raising the voices of those who’ve been marginalized and oppressed, I think about how he broke through barriers after the Civil Rights era when no one else on television was doing it.

And as a Christian, I think about how every single episode centered on loving others and loving ourselves, that we are liked just as we are – that we are loved for who we’ve always been and who we are becoming.

The message he passed on to me, and continues to pass on to thousands of people through children’s television and a grown-up documentary, is one of Love.

Might we do the same.

Might we be the same.

And when we find ourselves in a sticky situation, whatever the hard thing, the tragedy, the loss, might we come to feel the gravity of love on the other side.

So tell me, is it the same for you?