Thanks-Giving to Mister Rogers

Confession: When my son was at the age for “Mister Rogers” viewing, I, at first, thought the program host was sort of insipid. The quirkier “Sesame Street,” (still a great show) was more to my liking. But over the years, I’ve come to see the error of my initial reaction and truly appreciate the depth of his philosophy and talents and the incredible contribution of Fred Rogers to generations of children and parents/adults alike.

This is definitely the year of celebration of the Mister Rogers phenomenon! We are being presented with a major movie starring Tom Hanks, documentaries (new and revived), and feature stories galore. Why Mr. Rogers Now?

There may be other reasons as well for this super-star attention – and he would never have seen himself as a super-star – but I think the public is hungering for a person who exhibits civility, empathy, authenticity, trustworthiness and has the ability to relate to anyone. We want a real neighborhood, not just online communities and superficially curated visions for Instagram. His creativity and talents as a musician, lyricist, puppeteer and TV program developer/writer were not individually genius level, but were widely received as straight from the heart offerings to whomever heard and viewed them.

That’s not the new normal of today.

And just as I have become a fan of his ability to reach out and touch so many different kinds of people, many adults are developing a new appreciation of his contributions to generations of children and parents – people of all ages.

Here are a few of his sayings.

• “There’s no person in the world just like you. I like you just the way you are.”

• “Deep and simple is far more important than shallow and complex.”

• “What do you do with the mad that you feel?”

  This last is from a song Fred wrote after hearing those words from a child. Rogers recited the whole of the song’s lyrics when he testified before Congress to retain and increase funding for public media and his program, which in over 30 years of air time became the longest running program in TV history before he died in 2003. I think his heart-wrenching testimony, so calmly and politely, though firmly presented, must have been among the most moving and convincing testimony certainly those members of Congress ever heard – and resulted in a large sum for public television.

Fred Rogers spoke directly to parents as well as children with his philosophy. He would likely be against the excess pressure put on young people to “succeed’ (in terms of grades, top college acceptances, etc.), and he always fought any kind of bullying, which unfortunately he suffered as a kid. He said much of his philosophy was influenced by his grandfather during that time.

If, as it is said, Fred Rogers was sometimes considered to be a moral compass for the country, who occupies that place now? As I said earlier, I believe it is no coincidence that he is getting this well-deserved attention now, that many in our country, indeed, the world, are craving belonging to the kind of “neighborhood” that Mister Rogers conjured up for, and across, all generations.

I ended my Thanksgiving evening by watching the PBS feature on Fred Rogers once again. PERFECT!