Our sons watched Sesame Street and Mr Rodgerโs
I’ve spent the past few weeks living with the words of wisdom from David and Solomon. Maybe that is why I wanted to write about the Fred Rogers documentary. Wonโt You Be My Neighbor? takes a fresh look at Fred Rogers and the impact his television show has made on millions of children and their parents. According to a recent CNN article, the movie is just in time because โthe new documentary also contemplates the beloved TV hostโs battle on behalf of kindness and civility, one whose outcome appears very much in doubt.โ
I think it is encouraging that the world is recognizing what Fred Rogers always knew was important. Rogers once said, โLove isnโt a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.โ One of the points the documentary makes is that love was the common thread woven into almost everything that Mr. Rogers said and did, on and off the screen.
Love is the basis for the 143 Club, a tribute to Mr. Rogersโs legacy. The number 143 was very important to Fred Rogers. He was faithful to swim every day, except Sundays. For the last thirty years of his life, he was careful to maintain his weight at 143 pounds. But the number had another meaning to him. Rogers said, โIt takes one letter to say โIโ and four letters to says โloveโ and three letters to say โyou.โโ One hundred and forty-three.
Wonโt You Be My Neighbor? is meant to be a trip down memory lane for people, but the director, Morgan Neville, hopes it will also serve as a reminder to people of a more civil time in our nationโs history. There is no doubt that social media has created a level of communication that sends anger, malice, and hatred to peopleโs devices and their minds at an alarming rate. Mr. Rogers believed in the importance of choosing words carefully, especially with children, because words formed pictures with meaning in a personโs mind.
Those who helped produce the television show, Mr. Rogerโs Neighborhood, said that no one could imagine how much thought went into every program and every word that was uttered on the show. Fred Rogers had a nine-step process for every statement made on his show. His producers called that process โspeaking Freddish.โ One example mentioned by Arthur Greenwald, a producer, was a scene in a hospital in which a nurse was inflating a blood-pressure cuff. Originally, the script had her telling the child, โI am going to blow this up.โ Greenwald said, โFred made us redub the line, saying, โIโm going to puff this up with some air.โโ Rogers didnโt want the words to sound like an explosion.
Fred Rogers had a degree in music, another degree in theology, and was an ordained minister in the United Presbyterian church. He was happily married to his college sweetheart, Sara Byrd. He never smoked and didnโt drink. His true passion was for the minds and hearts of children.
Rogers said, โWhen I was very young, most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me.โ
Fred Rogers received a lot of letters and was faithful to respond to all of them. One day, a high school student wrote Rogers and asked him what he believed was the greatest event in American history. Fred Rogersโs response to the boyโs question was, โI canโt say.โ Then Rogers said, โI suspect that like so many great events, it was something very simple and very quiet with little or no fanfare (such as someone forgiving someone else for a deep hurt that eventually changed the course of history.) The really important โgreat thingsโ are never center stage of lifeโs dramas; theyโre always in the wings. Thatโs why itโs so essential for us to be mindful of the humble and the deep rather than the flashy and superficial.โ
Fred Rogers wouldnโt be classified as a โbig starโ by todayโs standards. In fact, would his television show be picked up by PBS today? But his wisdom shouldnโt be considered โold-fashioned.โ His thoughts and opinions are actually ancient, dating all the way back to King Solomon.
Have you been feeling like your way of thinking is no longer relevant in our changing culture? Mr. Rogers and King Solomon would tell you otherwise. Godโs priorities and Godโs truth are unchanging. Love, humility, and kindness may have lost some of the worldโs esteem, but they will never lose Godโs. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, โStand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your soulsโ (Jeremiah 6:16).
We donโt need to be worried about feeling old-fashioned. Rest on the thought that Godโs goal is we would be downright โancient.โ Fred Rogers would tell us to humbly take our truth and our talents to a world that needs to know Godโs love.
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